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ERNEST  RENAN 


BENAN  IN   HIS   STUDY,  AFTER  THE   ETCHING  BY  ANDERS   ZOEN 


ERNEST  RENAN 


BY 

LEWIS  FREEMAN  MOTT 

PB0FES80H  OF  ENGLISH  IN  THE  COLLEGE 
or  THE  CITT  OF  NEW  TOBK 


D.   APPLETON  AND   COMPANY 

NEW  YORK  LONDON 

1921 


COPTRIGHT,    1921.   BY 

D.  APPLETON  AND   COMPANY 


PBIMTID  IN  THK  UNITED  STATES  OF  AMEBIC* 


PREFACE 

A  STUDY  of  Kenan's  life  emphasizes  the  fact  that  his 
works,  even  when  apparently  most  abstract  and  erudite,  are 
in  a  surprising  degree  the  product  of  his  character  and  his 
experience;  and  in  this  experience  the  external  is  insepa- 
rably blended  with  the  internal.  Events,  books,  friends, 
dreams,  meditations,  travels,  little  incidents  and  observa- 
tions, diligent  and  minute  investigations,  all  combine  into  a 
unity  amid  diversity,  which  makes  up  our  general  impres- 
sion of  this  eminent  personality.  There  is  an  autobiograph- 
ical tone  to  all  his  thoughts,  and  the  "  I "  and  the  editorial 
"we"  are  copiously  employed  in  his  writings,  though  with- 
out producing  the  effect  of  egotism.  His  religion  was  not 
a  logical  system,  but  an  experience  and  an  outlook  upon  life, 
and  his  social  and  political  philosophy  also  sprang  rather 
from  his  observation  of  current  and  past  happenings  than 
from  abstract  reasoning.  His  moral  and  religious  nature 
lay  at  the  bottom  of  his  thinking  and  gave  rise  to  his  seeming 
contradictions.  Which  of  us  does  not  find  in  himself  anti- 
thetical feelings,  mingled  pleasures  and  regrets,  changing 
perspectives  and  varying  lights  and  colors?  Kenan's  un- 
usual frankness  in  giving  vent  to  his  unstable  moods,  instead 
of  measuring  his  expression  by  a  fixed,  and  therefore  arti- 
ficial, standard,  is  one  secret  of  the  charm,  the  vivacity,  and 
the  actuality  of  his  writings.  It  is  also  a  reason  why  a 
review  of  his  life  is  of  exceptional  interest. 

He  saw  in  the  development  of  the  individual  an  epitome 
of  the  development  of  the  human  race.  Biography,  like  his- 
tory, is  a  hecoming.    Inclined  by  nature  and  by  reflection  to 

V 


PREFACE 

attach  supreme  importance  to  origins,  he  has  himself  studied 
his  two  earlier  epochs  in  his  charming  Becollections  of  Child- 
hood and  Youth.  This  work  is  accurate  enough,  considered 
as  the  picture  of  experiences  viewed  across  the  interval  of 
forty  years.  The  general  perspective  is  excellent,  though 
some  lines  are  dimmed  and  some  colors  softened  by  distance. 
For  details  and  for  distribution  of  emphasis,  as  the  author 
himself  declares,  it  needs  to  be  supplemented.  The  material 
is  at  hand  in  notes  set  down  at  the  moment  and  in  letters 
written  in  the  heat  of  the  conflict. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  PAGl 

Preface    v 

I.    Early    Years;     Saint    Sulpice;     Breach    with    the 

Church 1 

II.    Secular  Studies;  Berthelot;  Youthful  Notebooks     .  34 

III.  Phizes  and  Degrees;  Kevolution  op  *48;  "La  Liberty 

de  Penser" 65 

IV.  "The  Future  of  Science" 85 

V.     Italian     Journey;     Periodical     Essays;     Averroes; 

Helpful  Friends 131 

VI.    Growing  Reputation  as  Scholar  and  Author    .     .     ,  165 

VII.    Syria;    Henriette    Eenan;    Professor    of    Hebrew; 

"Life  of  Jesus" 207 

VIII.    Second    Oriental    Trip;     Literary    and    Scholarly 

Productions;  Political  Campaign 254 

IX.    Franco-Prussian     War;      Continued     Productivity; 

French  Academy 281 

X.    Literary      Potentate;       Achievement      op      Every 

Ambition;   Last  Years 323 

XI.     "Origins  op  Christianity" 373 

"History  op  the  People  op  Israel" 414 

XIII.    Conclusion 443 


ERNEST  RENAN 


CHAPTER  I 

EABLY  YEABS;   SAINT  SULPICE;  BREACH   WITH  THE  CHURCH 

(1823-1846) 

Joseph  Ernest  Renan  was  born  at  Tregxiier,  C6tes-du-Nord, 
France,  at  6  a.  m.,  February  28,  1823,  the  son  of  Philibert-Frangois 
Renan,  grocery  merchant,  aged  49,  and  Madeleine-Josephe  F^er, 
aged  39,  dwelling  at  Treguier.^  He  was  baptized  March  2.  The 
father  was  an  unpractical  Breton  seaman,  the  grocery  store  being 
kept  by  the  mother,  a  vivacious  villager  with  Gascon  blood  in 
her  veins.  Their  house  was  halfway  between  the  port  and  the 
cathedral  on  the  Grand'  Rue,  now  rue  Renan.  The  family  in- 
cluded a  brother,  Alain,  bom  in  1809,  and  a  sister,  Henriette, 
bom  in  1811.  His  relatives,  among  whom  were  several  aunts, 
were  humble  people.  The  boy  often  visited  them  at  Lannion, 
Brehat  and  other  nearby  places.  As  an  infant,  he  was  cared  for 
by  a  nurse  and  his  health  was  veiy  delicate.  His  death  was 
averted,  it  was  thou^'ht,  by  prayers  to  the  Virgin.  To  discover 
whether  or  not  he  would  live,  an  old  sorceress,  named  Gode,  threw 
one  of  his  tiny  shirts  into  a  sacred  spring  and,  as  the  garment 
did  not  sink,  life  was  promised.  Henriette  early  adopted  him 
and  became  his  little  mother.  In  July,  1828,  the  father  was  mys- 
teriously drowned,  perhaps  committing  suicide,  leaving  debts 
greater  than  the  value  of  his  house.  Finding  Treguier  too  sad, 
the  family  moved  to  Lannion,  where  the  mother  had  relatives, 
the  brother,  Alain,  going  to  Paris  for  a  business  career.  At 
Lannion  Ernest  went  to  school.  They  were  very  poor,  but  the 
creditors  did  not  press  them,  and  ultimately  Henriette  and  Alain 
paid  all  the  debts.     Before  March,  1831,  the  Renans  returned  to 

*See  the  record  of  birth  printed  (p.  81)  in  Ernest  Renan  en  Bre- 
tagne,  by  Rene  d'Ys,  Paris,  1904.  The  date  usually  given,  February 
27,  appears  to  come  from  Renan  himself,  as  Mme.  Darmesteter  tells 
us.  Henriette,  however,  writes  him  a  letter  on  his  twenty-second  birth- 
day, February  28,  1846. 

1 


ERNEST  RENAN 

their  house  at  Treguier,  and  Ernest  had  a  very  serious  illness 
which  left  traces  from  which  he  suffered  in  later  life.  Mme.  Renan 
reopened  her  little  shop  and  Henriette  started  a  small  school,  which 
was  not  successful.  There  was  at  Treguier  a  college  or  seminary, 
officially  known  as  the  Ecclesiastical  School  of  Treguier.  For 
this  college  Mme.  Renan  furnished  groceries  to  the  amount  of 
three  or  four  hundred  francs  a  year.  One  of  the  masters,  I'Abbe 
Pasco,  became  interested  in  her  son,  who  wanted  to  be  a  priest, 
and  secured  for  him  a  scholarship.  Renan  entered  the  school  in 
1832.  Though  some  reports  mention  lateness  and  inattention  in 
church,  he  is  usually  characterized  as  docile  and  diligent,  and 
there  was  much  mutual  affection  between  him  and  the  priests  who 
taught  him.  The  principal  studies  were  Latin  and  mathematics, 
and  these  were  thoroughly  mastered.  Every  year  Renan  gained 
either  first  or  second  prize  or  honorable  mention  in  every  sub- 
ject. His  two  chief  rivals  and  schoolboy  friends  were  Liart  and 
Guyomar,  both  of  whom  died  young.  In  1835,  Henriette,  who  had 
been  educated  by  some  nuns  and  by  a  returned  emigree  aristo- 
crat, went  to  Paris  as  underteacher  in  a  school  for  girls.  In 
1838,  Renan  carried  off  first  prize  in  every  one  of  the  nine  sub- 
jects of  his  school.  This  fact  was  brought  to  the  attention  of 
Dupanloup,  head  of  the  seminary  of  Saint-Nicholas-du-Chardomaet, 
and  he  offered  the  boy  a  scholarship  to  last  until  he  was  twenty- 
five.  An  urgent  letter,  written  by  Henriette  on  August  31,  con- 
veyed the  information  that  an  unexpected  providence  had  pro- 
vided for  her  brother's  whole  future  and  offered  to  pay  the  ex- 
penses of  the  trip.  On  September  7,  Ernest  arrived  at  Saint 
Nicholas,  where  he  remained  for  three  years,  studying  chiefly  clas- 
sic and  French  literature,  the  rhetoric  of  the  French  schools. 
At  this  time  Mme.  Renan  gave  up  her  shop  and  rented  all  of  the 
house  except  one  room  for  herself.  In  1839,  Renan  secured  places 
in  the  school  for  his  comrades,  Guyomar  and  Liart,  for  both  of 
whom  he  had  great  affection;  but  the  first  died  in  1840,  and  the 
second  returned  to  Brittany,  where  he  also  died  immediately  after 
entering  the  priesthood  in  1845.  Having  obtained  more  prizes 
than  any  other  boy  in  his  class,  Renan  passed  the  summer  of 
1839  at  Treguier.  The  summer  of  1840,  after  he  had  won  five 
prizes,  he  spent  at  Gentilly,  the  country  house  of  Saint  Nicholas, 
just  beyond  the  walls  of  Paris.  The  summer  of  1841  he  was  again 
in  Brittany,  Henriette  supplying  the  money.  In  January,  1841, 
Henriette  went  to  Poland  as  governess  in  the  family  of  Count 
Andre  Zamoyski.    In  the  autumn  of  1841,  Renan   entered  the 

2 


EARLY  YEARS 

seminary  of  Issy  for  two  years  of  philosophy,  and  here  his  first 
doubts  appear.  Owing  to  shortage  of  funds,  he  spent  the  sum- 
mer of  1842  at  Issy,  but,  having  received  money  from  Alain  and 
Henriette,  he  passed  the  vacation  of  1843  with  his  mother  in 
Brittany.  In  the  autumn,  he  entered  Saint  Sulpice  in  Paris  for 
theolog}',  and  here  began  the  study  of  Hebrew  under  the  learned 
Le  Hir.  In  the  first  year,  after  much  hesitation,  he  received  the 
tonsure  at  Christmas  and  minor  orders  in  June;  in  the  second 
year  he  absolutely  refused  the  subdeaconate.  Both  at  Issy  and 
Saint  Sulpice  he  lived  in  almost  complete  isolation.  The  sum- 
mers of  1844  and  1845  were  both  passed  in  Brittany.  They  were 
a  period  of  inward  struggles.  He  had  ceased  to  be  a  Catholic, 
and  on  October  9  he  left  Saint  Sulpice  and  abandoned  all  thought 
of  an  ecclesiastical  career.^ 


Renan  describes  Tregnier,  in  which  his  childhood  was 
passed,  as  a  vast  monastery,  without  commerce  or  industry, 
a  place  to  which  no  sound  from  the  outer  world  penetrated, 
where  the  pursuits  of  ordinary  men  were  called  vanity  and 
where  what  the  world  calls  illusions  were  regarded  as  the 
only  reality.  The  cathedral  dominated  the  town,  and  whole 
streets  were  formed  by  the  long,  high  walls  of  convents,  while 
the  secular  quarter  and  the  port  were  insignificant.  Not 
only  in  these  physical  surroundings,  but  in  his  education, 
the  ecclesiastical  influence  was  complete,  for  though  there 
was  nothing  clerical  about  his  father  and  his  uncles, — the 
freethinking  watchmaker  and  the  ne'er-do-well  Pierre,  for 
example — these  men  were  without  influence  on  his  child- 
hood, the  care  of  his  early  years  being  in  the  hands  not  of 
men,  but  of  women,  his  sister  and  his  mother,  and  in  the 
background  his  maternal  grandmother,  whom  he  describes 
as  intensely  royalist  and  Catholic. 

*In  his  various  published  recollections,  Renan  is  surprisingly  in- 
exact in  dates.  This  inexactitude  his  biographers  have  imitated  in 
a  degree  suited  to  the  temperament  or  the  carelessness  of  each.  The 
foregoing  facts  are  based  upon  letters  contemporary  with  the  events 
and  upon  the  thoroughly  accurate  book  of  the  author  whose  pseudonym 
^8  Ren6  d'Ys. 

3 


ERNEST  RENAN 

His  grandfather  on  his  father's  side  was  a  mariner,'  who, 
after  accumulating  a  small  property,  had  established  him- 
self at  Treguier.  This  property  his  father  lost.  Having 
served  in  the  fleet  of  the  First  Republic,  the  elder  Renan 
was  later  a  ship  captain  on  his  own  account,  but  he  was 
drawn  into  commerce,  for  which  he  was  unfitted  both  by  his 
weak  and  sentimental  nature  and  by  his  lack  of  business 
skill.  In  the  commercial  crisis  of  1815,  his  little  fortune 
disappeared.  Though  oppressed  with  melancholy,  he  con- 
tinued his  life  on  the  sea,  until  in  July,  1828,  his  ship,  com- 
ing from  Saint-Malo,  entered  the  harbor  of  Treguier  with- 
out him.  The  crew  had  not  seen  him  for  several  days,  but  a 
month  later  the  body  was  found  and  buried  in  the  sand 
beneath  the  washing  of  the  tide.* 

Renan 's  maternal  grandfather  was  from  Bordeaux,  and 
to  this  component  in  his  blood  the  genial  author  of  the 
eighties  ascribes  his  joyous  and  ironical  temper,  just  as  he 
ascribes  his  idealism  and  his  unfitness  for  commerce  and 
industry  to  his  Breton  ancestry.  Perhaps  his  auto-anthro- 
pology should  not  be  taken  too  seriously.  But  whatever  he 
may  or  may  not  have  owed  to  race,  he  certainly  owed  much 
to  the  surroundings  of  his  early  years.  The  vividness  and 
permanence  of  Renan 's  impressions  of  his  childhood  are 
remarkable;  sermons,  legends  of  local  saints,  Breton  fes- 
tivals, persons,  localities,  little  incidents  of  everyday  life 
remained  in  his  mind  fresh  and  unimpaired  to  the  end.  ' '  I 
have  seen  the  primitive  world,"  he  says.  "In  Brittany 
before  1830  the  most  distant  past  still  lived.'" 

Gascon  cheerfulness  and  Breton  provincial  tradition  were 
excellently  combined  in  his  mother.  "My  mother  was  in 
her  feelings  and  her  recollections  entirely  of  that  old  world. 
She  spoke  Breton   admirably,   and  knew   all   the   sailors* 

*  Those  interested  in  genealogy  may  consult  the  tables  given  by  Ren6 
d'YB. 

♦For  the  uncertainties  of  this  story,  see  Ren6  d'Ys,  pp.  89-92. 

*  Souvenira,  p.  87. 

4 


EARLY  YEARS 

proverbs  and  a  quantity  of  things  that  nobody  any  longer 
knows  to-day.  She  was  entirely  of  the  people,  and  her 
natural  vivacity  gave  surprising  liveliness  to  the  long  stories 
she  told,  stories  which  she  was  almost  the  only  one  to  know. 
Her  sufferings  hardly  at  all  affected  her  astonishing  gayety ; 
she  still  jested  on  the  afternoon  of  her  death."* 

At  the  age  of  five  Renan  was  put  in  charge  of  Saint 
Yves.  "At  the  death  of  my  father,"  he  tells  us,  "my 
mother  led  me  to  his  chapel  and  made  him  my  patron.  I 
cannot  say  that  the  good  Saint  Yves  managed  our  affairs 
wonderfully  well,  or  that  he  gave  me  any  remarkable  un- 
derstanding of  my  own  interests;  but  I  owe  him  something 
better  than  that;  he  gave  me  a  contentment  that  passes 
wealth,  and  a  natural  good  humor  that  has  kept  me  happy 
to  the  present  day. ' ' ' 

The  boy  was  a  student  and  a  dreamer,  often  lost  in  his 
visions  during  divine  service  in  the  cathedral.  When  six, 
in  declaring  a  childish  ambition,  he  proclaimed  that  he  would 
be  a  writer  of  books.  Weak  in  body  and  unfit  for  violent 
physical  exercise  and  boyish  games,  he  preferred  the  com- 
panionship of  the  little  girls,  a  preference  that  earned  him 
the  sobriquet  Miss  and  subjected  him  to  all  sorts  of  perse- 
cutions from  juvenile  masculinity.  "As  a  child,"  he  says, 
' '  it  was  hard  for  me  to  move ;  I  never  played,  but  tended  to 
sit  down  and  be  satisfied.  Twice  a  day  I  covered  the  distance 
from  house  to  college  without  turning  one  step  to  right  or 
left.  I  already  had  the  rheumatism  that  now  makes  walk- 
ing so  diflScult."  ^ 

Renan 's  elder  brother,  Alain,  who  left  home  in  1828  at 
the  age  of  nineteen  to  begin  a  life  of  labor  that  was  never 
fully  recompensed,  naturally  counted  for  little  in  his  devel- 
opment, but  his  sister,  Henriette,  was  one  of  the  cardinal 


'Souvenirs,  p.  21. 

'  Ibid.,  p.  10. 

'  Discowrs  et  confSrences,  p.  215. 


ERNEST  RENAN 

shaping  influences  in  his  life.  Born  at  Treguier,  July  22, 
1811,  her  early  life  was  sad  and  filled  with  austere  duties. 
The  father's  melancholy  disposition,  with  no  portion  of  the 
mother's  liveliness,  was  her  inheritance.  To  the  end,  she 
had  little  taste  for  vulgar  distractions.  Instead  of  courting 
the  world,  she  withdrew  within  herself,  gave  her  best  to  a 
small  circle  only,  and  made  her  life  a  succession  of  acts  of 
devotion.  The  special  object  of  this  devotion  was  her 
younger  brother,  to  whom,  even  in  the  precocious  maturity 
of  her  girlhood,  her  relation  was  more  that  of  mother  than 
sister.  She  took  upon  herself  the  responsibility  of  his 
future,  renounced  entering  a  convent  to  which  she  had  an 
inclination,  refused  an  offer  of  marriage  which  would  have 
detached  her  from  her  charge,  and  when  a  little  school  that 
she  had  started  in  Treguier  failed,  she  accepted  in  1835  a 
place  as  underteacher  in  an  institution  for  girls  in  Paris, 
where  she  served  a  cruel  apprenticeship,  harassed  by  deadly 
homesickness  amid  unworthy,  frivolous  and  sordid  sur- 
roundings. Working  sixteen  hours  a  day,  she  soon  became 
director  of  studies  in  a  good  school,  went  through  all  the 
public  tests  and  gained  a  knowledge,  particularly  in  history, 
that  Renan  calls  exceptional.  Until  she  went  to  Paris,  the 
boy  was  her  constant  personal  care  and  even  in  absence  his 
interests  were  always  the  anxious  subject  of  her  most  affec- 
tionate thoughts. 

Renan 's  schooling  up  to  the  age  of  fifteen  was  obtained 
from  ecclesiastics  in  the  college  at  Treguier.  According  to 
his  own  statement,  they  taught  him  love  of  truth,  respect 
for  reason,  and  an  appreciation  of  the  seriousness  of  life, 
the  only  things  in  him  that  never  varied.  "These  worthy 
priests,"  he  says,  ''were  my  first  spiritual  teachers,  and  I 
owe  them  whatever  good  there  is  in  me.  AU  their  words 
seemed  to  me  oracles;  I  had  such  respect  for  them  that  I 
never  had  a  doubt  concerning  anything  they  told  me  up  to 
the  age  of  sixteen,  when  I  came  to  Paris.  ...  At  bottom,  I 

6 


EARLY  YEARS 

feel  that  my  life  is  still  governed  by  a  faith  I  no  longer 
possess. ' ' " 

His  fellow  pupils  were  mostly  young  peasants  from  the 
neighborhood,  who  were  studying  for  the  priesthood,  and 
whose  intellectual  state  was  equivalent  to  that  of  the  Ger- 
mans at  the  time  of  Charlemagne.  To  the  whole  school  the 
life  of  the  spirit  furnished  the  only  noble  career,  and  every 
lucrative  profession  seemed  servile  and  unworthy.  Morality 
was,  of  course,  regarded  as  inseparable  from  dogma.  In 
politics,  strict  legitimacy  prevailed,  and  the  Revolution  and 
Napoleon  were  objects  of  horror.  On  the  whole,  the  educa- 
tion was  that  of  the  seventeenth  century.  Latin  and  mathe- 
matics were  thoroughly  studied ;  but  history  was  confined  to 
good  old  Rollin  and  natural  science  did  not  exist.  French 
literature  ended  with  the  pious  successors  of  the  age  of  Louis 
XIV.  "La  Morale  en  action,"  says  Renan,  "was  in  my 
childhood  the  book  that  had  the  greatest  influence  on  me 
after  Telemorque." '^°  By  instinct,  these  teachers  distrusted 
Chateaubriand;  Lamartine,  who  troubled  them  with  his 
religiosity,  they  sneered  at;  of  Victor  Hugo  they  were 
entirely  ignorant ;  the  writing  of  French  verse  was  frowned 
upon  as  almost  immoral,  but  Latin  verse  was  cultivated  with 
diligence. 

Such  was  the  "crypt  lighted  by  smoky  lamps"  in  which 
Renan 's  intellectual  life  began.  If  he  had  not  been  exposed 
to  the  sun,  what  would  have  been  the  outcome? 

Persuaded  by  my  teachers  of  two  absolute  truths:  the  first, 
that  any  one  with  self-respect  can  labor  only  at  an  ideal  task, 
that  other  things  are  secondary,  base,  almost  shameful,  ignominia 
seculi;  the  second,  that  Christianity  is  the  complete  summation  of 
the  ideal;  it  was  ine\atable  that  I  should  believe  myself  destined 
to  be  a  priest.  This  idea  was  not  the  result  of  any  reflection, 
impulsion  or  reasoning.  It  was  in  a  way  a  matter  of  course. 
The  possibility  of  a  profane  career  did  not  come  into  my  mind. 

*  Bouvenirs,  p.  11. 

"  FeuiUes  detachees,  p.  34. 


ERNEST  RENAN 

Having  indeed  accepted  with  the  most  perfect  seriousness  and 
docility  the  principles  of  my  teachers,  like  them  looking  on  e"pry 
bourgeois  or  lucrative  profession  as  inferior,  base,  humiliai  jg, 
good  at  the  most  for  those  imsuccessful  in  their  studies,  it  was 
natural  for  me  to  want  to  be  what  they  were.  They  became  the 
model  for  my  life,  and  I  had  no  other  dream  than  to  be,  like 
them,  a  professor  in  the  college  of  Treguier,  poor  but  exempt 
from  material  cares,  esteemed  and  respected  as  they  were.^^ 

Such  is  Renan's  oft-repeated  judgment,  but  we  may  be 
permitted  to  doubt  whether,  even  had  he  not  been  taken 
from  these  honest,  but  limited  surroundings,  he  would  have 
preserved  throughout  life  the  faith  that  had  appeared  from 
the  first  the  absolute  expression  of  truth.  Speculationj  how- 
ever, is  useless.  From  the  most  obscure  little  town  of  the 
most  hidden  province,  he  was  thrown,  vnthout  preparation, 
into  an  animated  Parisian  environment,  and  the  world^^was 
revealed  to  him. 

II 

The  Abbe  Dupanloup,  having  been  appointed  head  f  the 
minor  seminary  of  Saint-Nicholas-du-Chardonnet  ih  Paris, 
desired  to  call  to  this  institution,  in  addition  to  the  yif'^r.l^Jvy 
sons  of  the  capital,  the  most  brilliant  students,  "df  prdi- 
schools  as  scholarship  pupils,  so  as  to  uniie  lashii  i  'd  u 
scholarly  ability  in  emulation  for  the  good  of  both  society 
and  the  church.  Henriette,  always  on  thciilookoufcufor  her 
brother's  advancement,  brought  his  school  record  .o  the 
attention  of  her  physician.  Dr.  Descuret,  a  friend  of  Dupan- 
loup,^'' As  the  scholarship  would  continue  till  the  holder's 
twenty-fifth  birthday,  it  seemed  a  godsend  to  the  impover- 
ished family.  The  rest  of  the  story  may  best  be  given  in 
Renan's  exact  words: 

"  Sowvenirs,  p.  140. 

"Cognat  says  the  scholarship  was  obtained  partly  through  a  Breton 
canon,  M.  Tresvaux  du  Fraval.    Correspondant,  May  10,  1882. 

8 


SAINT  NICHOLAS 

In  the  year  1838,  I  won  in  fact  at  the  college  of  Treguier  all 
the  prizes  of  my  class.  The  prize  list  came  to  the  attention  of  one 
of  the  enlightened  men  whom  the  ardent  captain  employed  to 
recruit  his  young  army.  In  a  minute  my  fate  was  decided.  "Bring 
him/'  said  the  impetuous  superior.  I  was  fifteen  and  a  half  years 
old;  we  had  no  time  for  reflection.  I  was  spending  my  vacation 
with  a  friend  in  a  village  near  Treguier;  on  the  fourth  of  Septem- 
ber in  the  afternoon,  a  messenger  came  for  me.  I  remember  my 
return  as  if  it  were  yesterday.  There  was  a  league  to  walk  across 
country.  The  bells  sounding  the  evening  Angelus  and  answering 
one  another  from  parish  to  parish,  filled  the  air  with  something 
calm,  sweet  and  melancholy,  an  image  of  the  life  I  was  going  to 
quit  forever.  The  next  day  I  left  for  Paris;  on  the  seventh,  I  saw 
things  as  new  to  me  as  if  I  had  been  flung  suddenly  into  France 
from  Tahiti  or  Timbuctoo.^' 

The  school  to  which  Kenan  was  thus  transferred  differed 
in  every  respect,  except  neglect  of  natural  science,  from  the 
college  of  Treguier.  Here  the  atmosphere  of  the  epoch 
flooded  into  the  cloister.  The  history  teacher  read  the  class 
pages  from  Michelet  which  filled  the  boy  with  enchantment. 
Hugo  and  Lamartine  were  subjects  of  eager  discussion,  lit- 
erary glory  was  prized,  and  the  highest  value  was  attached 
to  humanism  and  good  breeding.  The  religious  tone,  though 
thoroughly  devout,  was  that  of  fashionable  society,  *'a  per- 
fumed, beribboned  piety,  a  young  ladies'  theology  far  re- 
moved from  scholastic  barbarism  and  mystical  jargon."  The 
faith  of  the  masters,  though  sincere,  troubled  itself  little 
with  the  dogmas  it  was  bound  to  accept.  The  education, 
indeed,  was  purely  literary  and  rhetorical,  as  though  all  the 
pupils  were  to  be  poets,  authors  or  orators.^* 

Dupanloup  was  the  school,  and  he  was  an  educator  with- 

^  Souvenirs,  p.  171. 

"Cognat  emphasizes  Renan's  piety  in  1838  and  his  fervent  devo- 
tion to  the  Virgin.  The  boy  always  added  a  cross  to  his  signature. 
He  not  only  performed  every  duty,  but  showed  eagerness  in  his  work, 
and  excelled  in  Latin  verse  on  light  subjects.  A  Greek  hymn  to 
Mary  by  him  was  found  among  the  school  papers.  Correspondant, 
June  10,  1882. 

9 


ERNEST  RENAN 

out  an  equal.  Every  evening,  in  the  half  hour  set  aside  for 
the  reading  of  a  book  of  piety,  he  substituted  himself  for 
the  book,  and  gave  the  boys  an  inimitable  talk  either  about 
school  affairs  or  about  some  personal  incident  concerning 
himself  or  one  of  the  pupils.  The  remarks  made  on  Fridays 
in  connection  with  their  notes  held  the  whole  school  in  sus- 
pense. A  word  from  him  was  the  only  punishment  ever  in- 
flicted short  of  the  extreme  penalty  of  expulsion.  *  *  He  was 
an  incomparable  awakener;  no  one  could  equal  him  in  his 
ability  to  draw  from  every  boy  the  full  sum  of  what  he 
could  give.  Each  one  of  his  two  hundred  pupils  had  a  dis- 
tinct existence  in  his  thoughts ;  for  each  of  them  he  was  the 
ever  present  inspirer,  the  motive  force  of  life  and  work.  He 
believed  in  talent,  and  made  it  the  basis  of  his  faith.  He 
often  repeated  that  the  worth  of  a  man  is  in  proportion  to 
his  faculty  for  admiration.  His  own  admiration  was  not 
always  sufficiently  enlightened  by  science,  but  it  sprang  from 
great  warmth  of  soul  and  a  heart  truly  possessed  with  the 
love  of  the  beautiful. "  ^^  This  distinguished  master  exer- 
cised a  dominant  influence  over  the  docile  country  boy.  To- 
ward the  close  of  his  third  year  in  the  school,  after  hearing 
Dupanloup's  opening  address  as  professor  at  the  Sorbonne, 
Renan  wrote  to  his  mother :  "  He  is  the  most  beautiful  soul 
and  the  most  lofty  mind  that  I  have  so  far  known. ' '  ^" 

The  first  weeks  in  Paris  were  embittered  by  homesickness. 
Though  he  found  both  teachers  and  fellow  pupils  affable 
and  though  Henriette  visited  him  every  week,  he  is  sad  to 
be  separated  from  his  mother  and  the  good  priests  at  Tre- 
guier,  to  whom  he  constantly  sends  affectionate  remembrances. 
"Ah,  I  was  happy  at  Treguier,"  he  exclaims;  but  he  will 
submit  to  the  will  of  God.  His  affection  toward  his  aunts 
and  his  friends,  especially  toward  his  comrades  Guyomar 
and  Liart,  whom  he  later  induced  to  come  to  Saint  Nicholas, 

"  Souvenirs,  p.    139. 
"Letter,  May  9,  1841. 

ID 


SAINT  NICHOLAS 

is  very  marked  in  his  early  letters,  and  his  deep  love  for  his 
mother  is  copiously  reiterated  from  first  to  last.  It  was  in 
fact  an  expression  of  this  love  that  first  attracted  to  Renan 
the  special  attention  of  Dupanloup.  It  is  characteristic  that 
the  homesick  boy  finds  everybody  about  him  good  and  kind. 
He  is,  moreover,  comforted  by  the  Virgin,  and  a  retreat  a 
month  after  his  entrance  brings  him  the  peace  of  God. 
* '  How  good  is  God  and  how  powerful  the  Holy  Virgin ! "  ^^ 
His  letters  are  much  occupied  with  the  daily  routine  of  the 
school.  He  regrets  that  there  is  no  mathematics,  he  gives 
a  list  of  Latin  and  Greek  authors  he  is  reading,  he  finds  the 
study  of  literature  interesting  and  good  for  composition. 
He  is  especially  occupied  with  his  class  standing.  In  the 
Latin  exercises,  he  is  fifth,  then  tenth,  seventh,  again  fourth 
and  twelfth;  then  he  clears  his  honor  by  attaining  third 
place  and  finally  he  announces  that  he  has  won  the  coveted 
first  place.  At  the  end  of  the  year,  he  had  obtained  more 
prizes  than  any  other  boy  in  his  class.  Thereafter  there  are 
apparently  no  more  low  grades;  he  and  two  others,  Foulon 
and  Henri  Nollin,  are  the  only  rivals  for  high  rank,  and 
Renan  soon  outdistances  even  these  competitors." 

The  routine  of  class  work  was  varied  by  walks  to  the 
country  establishment  at  Gentilly  belonging  to  Saint  Nicho- 
las. On  such  excursions  Renan  took  his  work  with  him,  but 
not  when  a  visit  was  paid  to  the  Jardin  des  Plantes,  where 
there  was  so  much  to  see.  Wherever  there  was  anything 
interesting,  he  was  interested;  he  delights  in  travel,  moon- 
light over  Cancale,  the  towns  and  country  he  passes  through, 

"  Letter,  May  30,  1839. 

"The  letters  show  that  Benan's  recollections  on  this  point  when 
he  wrote  the  Souvenirs  were  a  trifle  faulty.  Still,  in  a  letter  to  Liart, 
February  5,  1841,  he  calls  rhetoric  "tedious,  pedantic,  monotonous, 
absurd,  execrable"  (Fragments  intimes,  p.  160).  As  soon  as  he  gets 
to  Issy,  he  regards  Saint  Nicholas  as  mediocre  (letter  to  same,  October 
31,  1842).  Cognat  combats  the  opposition  between  Saint  Nicholas  and 
Saint  Sulpice,  but  Kenan's  contemporary  letters  are  proof  of  his  im- 
pressions. 

11 


ERNEST  RENAN 

the  architecture  of  the  churches ;^^  when  the  school  "Acad- 
emy ' '  makes  a  trip  around  Paris,  he  discourses  on  the  archi- 
tecture of  the  public  buildings;  he  is  delighted  with  Notre 
Dame,  but  is  not  so  greatly  pleased  with  the  Madeleine  or 
other  modern  structures ;  he  sees  the  king  in  the  Bois  de  Bou- 
logne, takes  great  interest  in  the  porcelain  at  Sevres;  even, 
against  his  mother's  warnings,  risks  a  ride  on  the  railroad. 
"You  see,"  he  remarks,  "one  can  travel  by  rail  without  los- 
ing an  arm  or  a  leg. ' '  °  Then  he  goes  to  see  the  funeral  car 
prepared  for  to-morrow 's '  comedy, "  ^^  and  at  another  time  he 
describes  with  much  detail  the  baptism  of  the  Count  of  Paris 
in  Notre  Dame,  where  he  saw  ' '  one  of  the  finest  assemblages 
in  the  world."  If,  to  adopt  his  own  analysis  of  his  dual 
nature,  the  Breton  part  in  him  got  lost  in  all  sorts  of  melan- 
choly, the  Gascon  part  perceived  that  this  new  world  was 
very  curious  and  really  worth  getting  acquainted  with. 

The  effect  of  all  these  new  experiences  upon  the  youth  was 
disquieting.  The  germ  in  him  was  fertilized,  the  seriousness 
of  his  faith  shaken.  He  was  as  yet  unaware  of  the  change, 
but  the  contrast  between  the  solid,  rigid,  narrow,  antiquated 
training  of  Treguier  and  the  brilliant,  free,  modern  educa- 
tion of  Saint  Nicholas  was  decidedly  unsettling.  In  The  Fu- 
ture of  Science  (page  296),  Renan  maintains  that  the  poetry 
of  Hugo  and  Lamartine  presupposes  all  the  work  of  modern 
critical  scholarship,  the  last  word  of  which  is  literary  pan- 

"  Letter,  October  1,  1839. 

"Letter,  July  25,  1840. 

"Letter,  July  27,  1840.  On  July  28,  1840,  the  bodies  of  those 
who  had  fallen  in  the  Eevolution  of  July,  1830,  were  placed  in  a 
vault  under  the  recently  completed  Column  of  July  erected  in  their 
honor  in  the  Place  de  la  Bastille.  The  funeral  car  seen  by  Eenan 
was  the  one  used  in  this  ceremony.  The  procession,  including  min- 
isters of  state,  the  Institute,  city  oflScials,  and  a  large  military  escort, 
passed  from  Saint-Germain-1 'Auxerrois,  where  mass  had  been  sung, 
through  the  Place  de  la  Concorde  and  the  boulevards  to  the  Place  de 
la  Bastille,  where  there  were  further  religious  and  civic  exercises. 
The  word  "comedy"  emphasizes  Eenan 's  legitimism  at  this  epoch. 
For  a  full  account  of  the  ceremonial  see  Annuaire  historique  uni- 
versel  for  1840. 

12 


SAINT  SULPICE 

theism.  As  these  poets,  without  having  read  the  works  of 
erudite  investigators,  yet  propagated  the  influence  which 
we  call  the  modem  spirit,  so  the  youth  absorbed  this  in- 
fluence with  no  clear  consciousness  of  its  nature. 

"For  three  years,"  says  Renan,  **I  underwent  this  pro- 
found influence,  which  brought  about  in  me  a  complete 
transformation.  M.  Dupanloup  had  literally  transfigured 
me.  From  the  poor  little  provincial  boy  encased  in  his  heavy 
sheath,  '^  he  had  drawn  out  an  active  and  open  mind. 
Something  to  be  sure  was  lacking  in  this  education,  and  as 
long  as  I  had  nothing  else,  there  was  a  void  in  my  mind. 
What  was  lacking  was  positive  science,  the  idea  of  critical 
search  for  truth.  That  superficial  humanism  stilled  my 
reasoning  power  for  three  years,  at  the  same  time  that  it 
destroyed  the  first  naivete  of  my  faith.  My  Christianity 
underwent  a  serious  diminution ;  but  there  was  nothing  yet 
in  my  mind  that  could  be  called  doubt." ^  The  ground 
was,  however,  unquestionably  well  prepared  for  the  seed. 


ni 

In  the  autumn  of  1841,  Renan,  according  to  the  regular 
procedure,  went  for  his  two  years'  course  in  philosophy  to 
Issy,  the  country  annex  of  the  Seminary  of  Saint  Sulpice. 

**"Pale  and  sickly,  his  wretched  body  bore  a  big  head;  his  eyes, 
almost  always  cast  do\^-ii,  seemed,  as  he  said  of  his  criticism,  to  read 
below  the  surface,  and  were  never  raised  unless  to  glance  sideways. 
Timid  to  awkwardness,  meditative  to  dumbness,  never  mingling  in 
games,  he  was  self -obstructed  during  the  recreation  periods,  talked 
little  and  with  very  few  friends.  If  to  the  situation  thus  created 
are  added  the  recollections  of  his  homeland,  the  separation  from 
his  mother  and,  above  all,  the  natural  mortification  of  being  no  longer 
at  Paris,  as  at  Tr^guier,  the  first  in  his  class,  it  will  be  readily  un- 
derstood that  he  was  seized  with  an  almost  fatal  homesickness." 
Cognat,  Correspondant,  June  10,  1882,  p.  792.  The  last  sentence 
shows,  what  one  so  often  feels  in  reading  Cognat 's  articles,  the 
rancor  of  a  defeated  competitor  in  schoolboy  exercises,  curiously 
surviving  through  forty  years. 

**  Souvenirs,  p.  195. 

13 


ERNEST  RENAN 

In  this  institution,  which  was  devoted  exclusively  to  train- 
ing for  the  priesthood,  he  found  grave  and  good  priests  who 
recalled  his  first  teachers.  Of  these  first  teachers  he  writes : 
"I  cannot  tell  you  how  often  their  remembrance  comes  to 
my  mind  and  how  much  gratitude  I  retain  for  them.  After 
God  and  you,  my  dear  mother,  there  is  no  one  to  whom  I 
owe  more.  If  I  possess  any  greater  ability  than  others  in 
study,  I  owe  it  to  the  excellent  principles  I  received  from 
them. ' '  ^*  The  spirit  of  Saint  Nicholas  was  here  reversed. 
A  school  of  solid  doctrine  and  of  virtue.  Saint  Sulpice  re- 
pudiated brilliance,  talent,  worldly  success  and  literature. 
The  TelSmaqu-e  of  Fenelon  was  the  limit  of  what  was  allowed 
to  the  muses.  Here  M.  Dupanloup  was  never  named;  his 
favorite  disciplines  were  looked  upon  as  childish ;  scholastic 
philosophy,  theology  and  the  Bible  were  the  only  studies 
held  in  esteem.  The  sudden  jolt  given  by  this  opposition  of 
ideas  further  unsettled  Renan's  faith. 

The  youth  found  pleasure  in  renewing  his  acquaintance 
with  mathematics.  He  also  had  lessons  in  physics  and 
natural  history,  which,  although  the  teacher  of  these  sub- 
jects cared  less  for  science  than  for  mysticism,  furnished  a 
foundation  for  Renan's  philosophic  thought,  "Mathemat- 
ics and  physical  induction, ' '  he  says,  ' '  have  always  been  the 
fundamental  elements  of  my  mind,  the  only  stones  of  my 
structure  that  have  never  changed  base  and  that  still 
serve. "^^  Yet  philosophy,  "the  finest  of  studies  and  the 
most  worthy  of  man,""  was  his  favorite  subject.  Seated 
on  a  bench  under  the  trees  of  the  park  in  which  the  seminary 
was  situated — "after  the  cathedral  of  Treguier,  the  second 
cradle  of  my  thoughts" — he  read  uninterruptedly  for  hours 
at  a  time,  "0,  he  will  study,  he  will  study,"  mocked  the 
mystic  instructor  in  science,  who  found  him  one  day  on  his 

»*  Letter,    February   26,    1842. 

*  Souvenirs,  p.  251. 

*  Letter,  January  12,  1842. 

14 


SAINT  SULPICE 

bench,  "and  when  the  care  of  poor  souls  calls  for  him,  he 
will  stUl  study.  Wrapped  up  in  his  overcoat,  he  will  say 
to  those  who  come  to  him,  'O,  leave  me  alone,  leave  me 
alone ! '  "  27  "  i  abandoned  myself  thus  without  scruple  to 
my  taste  for  study.  My  solitude  was  absolute.  In  the 
course  of  two  years,  I  did  not  once  visit  Paris,  though  per- 
mission was  readily  granted.  I  never  played:  I  passed  the 
recreation  periods  seated,  trj-^ing  to  defend  myself  against 
the  cold  by  triple  coverings.  The  teachers,  wiser  than  I, 
called  my  attention  to  the  harm  to  my  health  that  would 
result  at  my  age  from  this  regime  of  immobility.  My 
growth  was  hardly  complete ;  I  had  acquired  a  stoop.  But 
my  passion  carried  everything  before  it.  I  gave  myself  to 
it  with  the  greater  assurance  since  I  believed  it  good.  It  was 
a  sort  of  fury ;  but  could  I  believe  that  the  ardor  of  thought, 
praised  as  I  saw  in  Malebranche  and  so  many  other  illus- 
trious and  holy  men,  was  blameworthy,  and  would  lead  me 
to  a  result  that  I  should  have  rejected  with  all  my  strength, 
if  I  could  have  foreseen  it  ? "  ^^ 

The  spiritual  director  Eenan  had  chosen,  M.  Gosselin, 
head  of  the  house,  was  a  man  of  erudition,  as  well  as  a 
model  of  polish  and  affability.  "He  knows  everything," 
wrote  the  boy  to  his  mother.  ^'  Disliking  mysticism  and 
exaltation,  Gosselin  leaned  always  toward  good  sense  and  rea- 
son. He  contributed  largely  also  toward  the  de\^elopment 
of  his  pupil's  innate  tendency  to  erudition.  His  orthodoxy 
was  so  sure  that  he  did  not  discourage  the  habitual  reading 
of  Malebranche,  Locke,  Leibnitz,  Reid  and  Dugald  Stuart. 
The  philosophy  officially  taught,  however,  was  scholasticism 
in  a  mitigated  form  as  fixed  in  the  eighteenth  century  in 
three  volumes  known  as  Philosophy  of  Lyons.  "The  prob- 
lems were  at  least  well  stated,  and  this  syllogistic  dialectic 

"Souvenirs,  p.  242. 

"Ibid.,  p.  244. 

"Letter,  January  12,  1842. 

15 


ERNEST  RENAN 

made  up  an  excellent  bit  of  mental  gymnastics. ' ' '°  Cousin, 
Jouffroy  and  Pierre  Leroux  were  known  through  the  argu- 
ments employed  to  refute  their  doctrines,  and  many  hetero- 
dox modern  ideas  came  to  the  pupils  under  the  rubric  Sol- 
vuntur  abjexita,  where  they  were  stated  in  order  that  they 
might  be  disproved.  Malebranche  in  particular  was  the  per- 
I>etual  subject  of  Kenan's  meditations,  a  priest  who  had  not 
felt  obliged  to  relinquish  his  office,  though  professing  ideas 
hard  to  reconcile  with  creed  and  catechism. 

To  the  young  student  the  contradiction  between  his  phi- 
losophy and  his  faith  was  not  yet  apparent,  yet  his  faitih 
was  already  seriously  undermined.  He  finds  that  philosophy 
leads  to  universal  doubt,  and  writing  to  Henriette,  he  ex- 
presses fears  for  his  mother's  peace  of  mind.  ^^  This  is  the 
result  of  some  six  months  at  Issy.  He  is  now  learning  the 
elements  of  German,  borrowing  books  from  a  fellow  student. 
He  did  not,  it  is  true,  make  much  progress  at  this  time,  yet 
in  September  he  writes :  "I  much  love  the  ways  of  the  Ger- 
man thinkers,  although  they  are  a  bit  skeptical  and  panthe- 
istic. If  you  ever  go  to  Konigsberg,  I  charge  you  to  make 
a  pilgrimage  to  the  tomb  of  Kant. ' '  ^^  His  knowledge,  in 
fact,  came  from  Mme.  de  Stael.  He  is  now  troubled  about 
his  future.  He  confesses  that  his  convictions  are  somewhat 
shaken  by  his  first  studies  in  philosophy.  Some  of  his  col- 
leagues are  men  he  could  not  bear  to  be  associated  with,  nor 
could  he  bow  to  authority ;  on  the  other  hand,  he  is  not  made 
for  the  world  or  the  salon,  but  for  an  independent  life  of 
study.  How  to  obtain  such  a  career  outside  the  church  is 
an  enigma.  He  begs  Henriette  not  to  tell  his  mother  of  his 
hesitations.  ^' 

It  is  obvious  that  a  year's  study  of  philosophy  had  re- 

"  Souvenirs,  p.  246. 

"  March  23,  1842.     See  also  Letters  to  Liart  of  this  year,  Frag- 
ments intimes,  pp.  186,  197,  207. 
"September  15,  1842,  to  Henriette. 
"Ibid. 

16 


SAINT  SULPICE 

duced  Renan  's  faith  to  a  feeble  and  tremulous  flicker.'*  He 
goes  ahead  rather  by  habit  than  by  conviction.  Revelation 
he  can  admit  in  a  general  sense,  as  was  done  by  Malebranche 
and  Leibnitz.  "You  are  not  a  Christian,"  said  one  of  his 
more  ardent  teachers  after  an  argument.  Renan  was 
shocked  and  horrified,  and  wept  at  the  feet  of  the  Virgin  in 
the  chapel,'**  but  it  did  not  require  any  special  illumination 
to  perceive  so  patent  a  fact,  any  more  than  special  keenness 
was  demanded  of  the  mystic  who  saw  the  sacerdotal  use- 
lessness  of  the  student  on  the  bench.  Henriette,  already  an 
unbeliever  through  her  reading  of  history,  was  evidently 
aware  of  her  brother's  condition,  though  she  does  not 
plainly  state  the  case  to  him  or  in  any  way  argue  it,  but 
only  urges  prudence  and  careful  consideration  before  he 
should  take  any  step  committing  himself  irrevocably  to  an 
ecclesiastical  career. 

What  attracted  Renan  in  this  direction  was  the  example 
of  Thomas  Reid,  a  clergyman  and  at  the  same  time  a  phi- 
losopher, and  Malebranche,  a  hardy  thinker,  yet  a  priest. 
His  taste  is  for  a  retired,  tranquil  life,  a  life  of  study  and 
reflection.  *'A11  the  ordinary  occupations  of  men,"  he 
writes,  "seem  to  me  tasteless  and  insipid,  their  pleasures 
are  tedious  to  me,  the  motives  that  govern  them  in  their 
conditions  of  life  inspire  nothing  but  disgust :  whence  I 
conclude  without  hesitation  that  I  am  not  made  for  such 
things. "'« 

In  April  came  the  test.  He  was  invited  to  take  the  ton- 
sure. This  is  not  an  irrevocable  act;  it  is  a  promise,  he 
tells  his  mother  in  a  letter  filled  with  indecision,  not  a  vow ; 
but  a  promise  to  God,  if  broken,  would  be  a  life-long  re- 
proach.   The  matter  is  left  to  M.  Gosselin,  his  director,  who 

••Cognat  is  undoubtedly  right  in  asserting  that  Kenan's  religious 
skepticism  was  a  consequence  of  his  rational  skepticism. 
"Letter  to  Liart,  June  20,  1843. 
••January   17,   1843. 

17 


ERNEST  RENAN 

decides  in  favor  of  the  measure. "  Then  Renan  withdraws 
in  fear ;  his  renunciation  is  the  will  of  God,  but  it  is  merely 
a  delay  till  he  has  greater  maturity ;  he  has  the  approval  of 
M,  Gosselin,  and  he  is  sure  the  step  will  ultimately  be  taken. 
In  every  line  of  this  letter  can  be  read  his  anguish  over 
his  mother's  expected  grief,  ^*  but  she  replies  with  cheerful 
approval,  the  delay  is  nothing,  he  must  have  courage,  all 
she  asks  is  that  he  consult  his  conscience  and  his  superiors.  ^^ 
The  whole  story  is  told  in  a  letter  to  Henriette : 

The  end  of  my  stay  at  Issy  has  brought  the  time  when  the  custom 
of  the  house  is  to  call  to  the  tonsure  those  who  are  judged  worthy; 
and  I  am  of  the  number  of  those  whom  the  directors  have  invited 
to  take  this  first  step  in  the  ecclesiastical  career.  You  can  believe 
that  this  is  not  a  command,  hardly  even  a  piece  of  advice:  it  is 
merely  a  permission  left  by  custom  to  the  reflections  of  each  and 
to  the  advice  of  his  special  director.  You  can  feel,  but  I  cannot 
express  to  you,  all  the  uncertainties  and  perplexities  in  which  such 
a  proposal  has  plunged  me.  I  do  not  believe  I  have  either  exag- 
gerated or  dissimulated  the  importance  of  the  step  that  has  been 
the  subject  of  my  reflections.  The  engagement  proposed  is  not 
irrevocable:  it  is  not  a  vow,  but  a  promise,  a  promise  given  upon 
honor  and  conscience,  a  promise  made  to  God :  now,  such  a  promise 
approaches  closely  to  a  vow.  I  have  therefore  thought  that  it 
demanded  the  most  serious  meditation  before  I  made  it,  and  my 
conscience  does  not  reproach  me  for  having  omitted  any  means 
at  my  disposal  for  my  enlightenment. 

I  have  not  lacked  advice:  God  has  furnished  me  a  rare  and  ines- 
timable treasure  in  a  director  of  remarkable  wisdom  and  goodness. 
In  him  I  have  found  a  simple  and  true  character,  perfectly  in 
harmony  with  my  own,  and  above  all  I  have  found  in  him  refined 
and  practical  tact,  apt  to  understand  and  feel  what  can  be  only 
half  said  in  such  delicate  matters.  His  advice  at  first  leaned  to- 
ward an  affirmative  decision;  once  his  instructions  were  really 
positive;  but  my  temptations  and  uncertainties  seemed  to  redouble 
as  I  regarded  more  fixedly  a  determination  of  such  great  import. 

I  have  in  addition  the  example  of  several  friends,  who  have 

"May  12,  1843. 

••June  6,  1843. 

••June  8,  1843,  from  Mme.  Benan, 

18 


SAINT  SULPICE 

decided  to  wait  for  their  stay  at  Saint  Svilpice  and  the  period  of 
their  theological  studies  (according  to  the  generally  established 
practice),  to  take  their  fii-st  engagement.  In  a  word,  all  the  diffi- 
culties that  have  filled  my  thoughts  have  returned  in  crowds :  your 
advice,  my  own  reflections,  everything  has  contributed  to  my  anx- 
iety. I  owe  it  indeed  to  the  truth  to  say  that  the  idea  of  taking  a 
backward  step  in  my  sacerdotal  career  has  not  come  to  me:  I 
have  never  regarded  the  question  as  anything  but  one  of  delay, 
and  my  director  has  engaged  me  not  to  look  upon  it  otherwise. 
But  I  could  not  conceal  from  him  the  fact  that  this  delay  had 
become  almost  a  necessity  for  me.  Finally  the  new  considerations 
I  presented  altered  his  first  judgment,  and  he  declared  that,  since 
there  was  no  impropriety  in  delay  and  since  the  act  might  be 
precipitate  in  my  present  state  of  mind,  he  would  consent  to  the 
postponement  I  asked  for.  "But  always,"  he  added,  "separate 
the  question  we  have  before  us  from  that  of  your  ecclesiastical 
calling:  they  are  entirely  and  absolutely  distinct,  and  you  know 
my  decision  on  the  second."  ...  It  needed  all  my  courage  to 
follow  the  voice  of  conscience  against  that  of  blood  and  of  tender- 
ness (mother's  disappointment)  in  an  occasion  when  I  feared  to 
cause  deep  pain  to  the  dearest  of  mothers.  ,  .  .  For  the  rest,  my 
good  Henriette,  you  will  perhaps  be  surprised  when  I  tell  you 
that  my  ideas  on  the  ecclesiastical  state  have  never  been  more  fixed 
than  since  this  first  test  to  which  I  have  just  been  subjected.  I 
have  never  believed  more  in  my  heart,  my  superiors  have  never 
assured  me  with  more  complete  agreement  that  the  will  of  God 
was  that  I  should  be  a  priest.  It  is  not  that  I  build  up  an  ideal 
of  human  happiness  in  such  a  life.  Neither  my  character  nor  my 
experience  leads  to  that.  But  after  all,  my  good  Henriette,  it  is 
folly  to  run  after  such  a  chimera,  since  it  does  not  exist  here 
below.  Duty,  virtue  and  the  delights  inseparable  from  the  exer- 
cise of  noble  faculties,  that  is  all  it  is  permissible  and  reasonable 
for  man  to  seek;  delight,  in  the  broadest  sense  of  the  word,  is  not 
made  for  him;  he  exhausts  himself  in  vain  in  pursuit  of  it. 
Christianity  once  admitted,  as  it  reasonably  can  be,  he  has  another 
end  to  fulfill.  Nothing  better  proves  to  me  the  divinity  of  the 
Christian  theory  of  man  and  of  happiness  than  the  very  reproaches 
that  the  modem  schools  cast  upon  it,  its  obliging  man  always  to 
come  out  of  himself,  to  flow,  so  to  speak,  against  his  nature,  to 
place  his  happiness  outside  of  himself  and  of  pleasures.  Truly  I 
forgive  them  willingly  for  not  admitting  Christianity;  man  is  not 
Christian  of  himself,  but  of  God;  it  is  then  only  half  their  fault; 

19 


ERNEST  RENAN 

but  I  do  not  forgive  them  for  not  having  seen  that  this  theory  is 
only  the  expression  of  a  fact,  the  downfall  and  present  misery  of 
man ;  a  simple  experimental  study  of  man  ought  to  have  brought 
them  to  this. 

This  point  established,  Christianity  proved,  and  the  will  of  God 
manifested,  as  I  have  reason  to  believe  it  has  been  for  me,  the 
logical  consequence  is,  it  seems  to  me,  inevitable.  It  is  neverthe- 
less a  difficulty  that  has  often  occupied  my  thoughts.  Supposing 
even,  as  I  believe,  that  the  fear  of  depriving  myself  of  some  com- 
forts and  perhaps  of  drawing  upon  myself  many  sufferings,  should 
not  be  a  sufficient  reason  for  drawing  back,  at  least,  I  have  said 
to  myself,  could  not  the  desire  of  conserving  the  sweet  liberty  and 
honest  independence  so  necessary  for  the  full  action  of  the  in- 
tellectual and  moral  faculties,  suffice  to  keep  me  from  embracing 
a  career  in  which  I  feel  sure  I  could  not  find  these? 

This  is  my  reply:  There  are  two  sorts  of  independence  of 
mind,  one  bold,  presumptuous,  criticizing  everything  worthy  of 
respect;  that  is  forbidden  by  my  priestly  duties,  but,  even  if  I 
embraced  another  path,  my  conscience  and  my  sincere  love  of 
truth  would  still  forbid  this;  it  is  not  then  this  sort  of  independ- 
ence that  is  in  question.  There  is  another,  wiser  sort,  respecting 
what  deserves  respect,  despising  neither  beliefs  nor  persons,  exam- 
ining calmly  and  with  good  faith,  using  reason  since  God  ha5| 
given  it  for  use,  never  rejecting  nor  adopting  an  opinion  simply 
on  human  authority.  Such  is  permitted  to  all,  and  why  not  to 
the  priest?  On  this  point,  it  is  true,  he  has  a  duty  beyond  that 
of  others.  This  duty  is  to  be  able  to  keep  proper  silence  and  to 
keep  his  thought  to  himself:  for  the  number  of  those  frightened 
by  what  they  do  not  understand  is  infinite.  But,  after  all,  is  it  so 
hard  to  think  for  oneself;  and  is  it  not  through  a  secret  motive  of 
vanity  that  people  are  so  eager  to  communicate  their  reflections 
to  others?  Does  not  every  man  who  would  live  in  peace  have  to 
impose  on  himself  the  law  of  silence  just  spoken  of?  "It  is  neces- 
sary to  have  a  hidden  thought,"  says  Pascal,  "and  judge  everything 
by  that,  speaking,  however,  as  the  people  do."  This  is  what  the 
clever  director  I  have  told  you  of  said,  and  he  dwelt  on  this  point 
as  though  speaking  from  experience.  "My  dear  fellow,"  he  said, 
"if  I  knew  that  you  had  not  the  strength  to  keep  silent,  I  should 
beg  you  not  to  become  a  priest."  "Sir,"  I  answered,  "I  have 
thought  it  osver,  and  I  believe  I  can  promise  to  find  the  strength."  ** 

•June  16,   1843. 

20 


SAINT  SULPICE 

This  is  the  lan^age  of  a  man  who  has  forced  himself  into 
an  untenable  position.  Sooner  or  later  this  position  must 
be  abandoned;  how  long  it  shall  be  held  depends  upon  cir- 
cumstances. In  some  cases  uncertainty  gradually  hardens 
into  clear-cut  negation;  in  the  case  of  Renan,  the  study  of 
the  Hebrew  Bible  added  to  philosophic  doubt  positive  evi- 
dence of  the  fallibility  of  the  infallible  church,  and  further 
anticipation  of  an  ecclesiastical  career  on  his  part  became 
impossible. 

IV 

The  struggle,  of  which  he  seems  to  have  been  rather  the 
victim  than  a  participant,  lasted  two  years,  with  occasional 
later  sporadic  outbreaks  after  the  decisive  act.  Though 
aware  that  his  faith  had  vanished,  he  strove  eagerly  to  be- 
lieve that  he  believed.  In  October,  1843,  he  entered  the 
main  Seminary  of  Saint  Sulpiee  in  Paris,  where  he  was  as- 
signed a  room  on  the  fourth  floor  so  that  he  might  have  the 
exercise  of  climbing  the  stairs.  The  atmosphere  was  that 
of  the  seventeenth  century,  permeated  with  a  particular 
Sulpician  honesty,  piety,  good  sense  and  taste  for  order. 
The  superior,  M,  Gamier,  a  man  of  prodigious  theological 
learning,  was  too  aged  for  active  management  of  the  house, 
and  these  functions  devolved  upon  M.  Carbon,  good,  jovial, 
straightforward,  but  by  no  means  a  distinguished  intellect. 
The  great  scholar  and  teacher  was  M.  Le  Hir.  ''There  was 
not  a  single  objection  made  by  rationalism  that  he  did  not 
know.  He,  however,  made  no  concession  to  them;  for  to 
him  the  truth  of  orthodoxy  was  never  an  object  of  doubt.  .  .  . 
The  supernatural  caused  him  no  intellectual  repugnance. 
His  balance  was  most  just;  but  in  one  of  the  scales  there 
was  an  infinite  weight,  an  unshakable  faith.  "Whatever 
might  have  been  put  in  the  other  scale  would  have  seemed 
light,  all  the  objections  in  the  world  could  not  make  him 

21 


ERNEST  RENAN 

vacillate.""  Profoundly  acquainted  with  German  exegesis 
and  theology,  he  appropriated  so  much  of  these  only  as  was 
compatible  with  his  orthodoxy.  In  grammar  he  was  fa- 
miliar with  the  best  and  latest  theories,  and  he  possessed  the 
critical  spirit  in  everything  tihat  did  not  concern  matters 
of  faith.  Being  a  Breton,  as  well  as  a  scholar  of  vast  learn- 
ing, he  was  particularly  sympathetic  to  Renan,  who  at  once 
began  under  him  a  course  in  Hebrew  grammar  and  was 
enchanted  with  his  exact  philology  and  his  admirable  expo- 
sition of  Semitic  idioms.  "M.  Le  Hir  fixed  my  life,"  he 
says;  **I  was  a  philologist  by  instinct.  I  found  in  him  the 
most  capable  man  for  developing  this  aptitude.  All  that  I 
am  as  a  scholar,  I  am  through  M.  Le  Hir.  It  even  seems  to 
me  sometimes  that  what  I  did  not  learn  from  him  I  have 
never  known  well.  * '  *^ 

At  first,  as  usual,  Renan  found  everything  delightful.  A 
ray  of  novelty  could  always  dispel  the  winter  of  his  discon- 
tent. He  is  pleased  with  the  admirable  buildings,  the  kindness 
and  affection  of  the  masters,  the  piety  and  intelligence  of  the 
pupils.  It  was  only  later  that  some  of  these  pupils,  happily 
only  a  few,  showed  themselves  unworthy  of  his  confidence, 
just  as  some  had  poisoned  his  last  months  at  Issy  by  their 
envy  and  their  petty  spirit.  Among  his  fellow  students  at 
Saint  Sulpiee  he  had  no  personal  friendships.  Though  his 
heart  had  an  imperious  need  of  true  and  disinterested  af- 
fection, he  was  alone  with  his  books  and  his  thoughts.  His 
solitude  was  even  greater  than  at  Issy.  Absorbed  in  his 
work  and  without  an  acquaintance  in  Paris,  he  spent  two 
years  without  passing  through  any  other  street  than  the 
rue  de  Vaugirard  that  he  traversed  once  a  week  on  a  trip 
to  Issy. 

Immediately  after  the  arrival  at  the  Seminary,  the  post- 
poned question  of  the  tonsure  again  became  pressing.    **It 


*•  Souvenirs,  p.  274. 
**Ibid.,  p.  288. 


22 


SAINT  SULPICE 

is  a  decision ;  the  word  is  terrible."  *'  But  further  delay  be- 
came impossible,  the  solicitations  of  his  individual  director 
gave  him  the  assurance  he  needed.  With  about  one  hundred 
and  fifty  others  he  went  through  the  ceremony  performed 
by  the  archbishop  of  Paris  in  the  chapel  of  the  Seminary  at 
Christmas  time,  and  for  a  season  his  consecration  to  God 
brought  calm  and  joy  in  place  of  incertitudes  and  struggles. 
This  is  what  he  told  his  mother ;  to  Henriette  his  language 
is  somewhat  different.  "I  took  the  step  because  I  saw  that 
not  to  take  it  was  to  start  in  the  opposite  direction,  to  which, 
after  all,  I  felt  more  opposed.  ...  In  consecrating  myself 
to  God  and  to  what  I  believe  the  truth,  in  taking  it  for  my 
share  and  the  portion  of  my  heritage,  according  to  the  words 
I  had  to  pronounce,  in  renouncing  for  it  the  vanities,  super- 
fluities, silly  delights,  and  what  are  called  pleasures,  I  have, 
after  all,  done  only  what  I  have  always  without  hesitation 
wanted  to  do.  I  have  never  hesitated  except  to  know  where 
the  truth  was,  or  if  it  required  me  to  serve  within  the  church, 
in  spite  of  the  human  difficulties  that  I  could  not  hide  from 
myself.  But  whether  or  not  I  embraced  the  ecclesiastical 
career,  I  had  said,  whatever  might  be  the  sentiment  about 
the  religion  in  which  I  believed  I  found  the  truth,  a  serious 
and  retired  life,  far  removed  from  superficialities  and  pleas- 
ure, would  always  be  my  settled  choice:  that  is  all  I  have 
promised,  and  this  promise  seemed  to  me  the  necessary 
preamble  of  all  truly  serious  research,  the  indispensable  in- 
itiation into  a  life  consecrated  to  truth  and  virtue. ' '  ** 

In  Principles  of  Conduct,  some  notes  written  for  his  own 
edification  just  after  he  had  received  the  tonsure,  is  found 
the  same  view  of  a  desirable  future : 

"In  a  word,  a  calm,  simple,  poor,  humble  life,  having 

"To  Henriette,  November  27,  1843. 

**To  Henriette,  April  16,  1844.  The  fact  that  his  faith  was  not 
unimpaired  is  proved  by  his  letter  to  Liart  of  March  29,  1844,  Frag- 
ments intimes,  p.  251.  "It  was  in  the  foundations  themselves,  in 
my  faith  that  I  was  attacked." 

23 


ERNEST  RENAN 

friends,  a  chance  to  think  and  study,  and  at  the  same  time 
to  be  useful  to  the  church,  loftiness  of  sentiment,  goodness 
of  heart,  elevation  of  thought,  tenacious  and  inductive  re- 
searches, lofty  piety,  simple  and  tender,  and  above  all  truth 
in  everything,  in  my  sentiments,  never  exaggeration  in  my 
conduct,  acting  as  though  I  were  alone  in  the  world,  always 
ready  to  die,  looking  at  things  directly  and  without  spec- 
tacles, seeking  in  all  and  above  all  truth,  never  having  rep- 
utation for  an  essential  motive,  in  a  word,  and  it  is  the  word 
that  sums  all  up :  truth,  truth,  truth,  unity,  simplicity,  such 
is  my  type,  and  all  this  per  Dominum  nostrum  Jesum  Chris- 
tum, Deum  et  Tiominem."  *' 

The  second  step,  the  acceptance  of  minor  orders,  which, 
however,  added  no  further  obligations,  was  taken  according 
to  the  precise  and  repeated  decisions  of  his  director,  without 
the  worries  or  doubts  that  had  accompanied  the  tonsure. 
As  there  was  no  choice  there  was  no  procrastination  or  de- 
bate. His  ordination,  in  company  with  two  hundred  and  fifty 
others,  took  place  early  in  June,  in  the  main  church  of  Saint 
Sulpice,  and  it  was  a  magnificent  and  beautiful  ceremony 
which  lasted  seven  hours.  When  Renan  writes  to  his  mother 
about  it,  he  hopes  God  will  finish  what  he  has  thus  begun ;  *^ 
when  he  writes  to  his  sister,  he  cannot  think  of  the  irrev- 
ocable next  step  without  fear,  and  he  calls  upon  God  to 
take  this  cup  from  him,  but  hopelessly  adds,  "His  will,  not 
mine,  be  done. ' '  *^  Doubtless  both  expressions  are  sincere, 
each  from  its  own  angle.  His  vacillation  during  the  whole 
period  of  his  stay  at  Saint  Sulpice  was  continuous  and  dis- 
tressing. It  was  a  struggle  between  heart  and  head,  in  which 
the  heart  often  deluded  tlie  head  with  agreeable  sophistries 
and  subterfuges,  only  to  be  again  inexorably  brought  to 
terms  by  implacable  reason.     The  experience  was  by  no 

*•  Fragments  intimes,  p.  289. 
*«June  5,  1844. 
**3u\j   11,   1844. 

24 


SAINT  SULPICE 

means  exceptional,  though  his  situation  made  it  unusually 
cruel. 

The  special  study  in  the  Seminary  was  of  course  theology, 
the  philosophic  side  of  which,  involving  as  it  did  "analysis 
of  man  and  society,  critical  discussion  and  experimental  re- 
searches," Renan  liked,  while  he  had  a  distaste  for  the 
dogmatic  side,  with  its  "subtleties,  scholasticism,  abstract 
and  empty  formulas  of  the  schools. ' ' "  But  what  determined 
his  religious  belief,  as  well  as  his  future  career,  was  his 
course  in  Hebrew.  From  the  beginning,  he  finds  the  subject 
full  of  charm  and  without  difficulty  after  mastery  of  the 
alphabet.  It  is  a  credit  to  the  Germans  that  the  study  of 
this  language  has  been  made  a  true  science,  leading  to  im- 
portant linguistic  laws.*"  In  retrospect  Renan  writes :  "At 
that  time,  I  had  an  extraordinary  power  of  assimilation, 
I  absorbed  everything  I  heard  my  master  say.  His  books 
were  at  my  disposal,  and  he  had  a  very  complete  library. 
The  days  of  the  walk  to  Issy,  he  took  me  to  Solitude  Hill, 
and  there  taught  me  Syriac. ' '  ^°  When  Renan  returned  from 
the  summer  vacation  of  1844,  the  teaching  of  the  elementary 
course  was  assigned  to  him  with  a  stipend  of  200  francs 
which,  on  his  objection,  was  made  150  francs.  ^^  From  this 
little  course  and  the  obligation  it  imposed  to  clarify  and 
systematize  his  ideas,  sprang  his  future  career  as  a  phi- 
lologist. 

•To  Henriette,   November  27,   1844. 

"November  6,  November  27,  1844. 

"  Souvenirs,  p.  288, 

"  The  occasional  inexactitude  of  the  Souvenirs  is  illustrated  by 
this  incident.  There  Eenan  says  that  he  was  offered  300  francs, 
which  appeared  to  him  colossal,  and  that  his  refusal  was  on  the 
ground  that  he  did  not  need  such  an  enormous  sum.  Of  course  he 
might  have  said  this  to  M.  Carbon,  who  made  the  offer,  but  it  was 
not  his  real  objection.  In  a  letter  to  Henriette  at  the  time,  Decem- 
ber 1,  1844,  he  says  that  the  sum  offered  was  200  francs,  that  he 
refused  because  he  feared  its  acceptance  meant  an  implicit  promise 
to  become  a  future  member  of  the  Society  of  Saint  Sulpice,  that  under 
pressure  he  consented  to  accept  100  francs  for  books,  and  that  fiaally 
the  amount  was  fired  at  150  francs. 

25 


ERNEST  RENAN 

During  this  same  year,  1844-45,  he  was  also  allowed  to 
follow  courses  at  the  Sorbonne  and  the  College  de  France, 
where  he  came  under  the  influence  of  the  prodigious  oriental 
erudition  of  Quatremere.  What  was  the  effect  of  all  this? 
On  the  technical  side,  it  taught  him  the  comparative  method, 
which  revealed  the  fact  that  the  Bible  was  full  of  human 
errors,  contradictions,  fables,  myths  and  legends,  and  in 
detail  it  taught  him  that  the  second  part  of  Isaiah  was  not 
by  Isaiah,  that  the  book  of  Daniel  was  apocryphal,  and  that 
the  Pentateuch  was  not  by  Moses.  The  foundations  of  his 
Catholicism,  already  weakened  by  philosophic  doubt,  were 
completely  destroyed  by  philological  science,  and  the  struc- 
ture of  his  faith  fell  in  ruins.  At  the  same  time,  on  the 
practical  side,  his  relations  with  the  University  showed  him 
that  there  could  be  a  career  of  study  and  thought  outside 
of  the  ecclesiastical  orders. 

Many  plans  for  the  future  presented  themselves  for  his 
consideration.  He  might  teach  at  Saint  Nicholas;  he  might 
become  a  private  tutor  in  Germany;  since  his  director  real- 
ized that  he  was  not  adapted  to  the  parochial  ministry,  he 
might  join  the  Society  of  Saint  Sulpice;  he  might  become 
professor  of  Hebrew  at  a  new  theological  faculty  to  be 
founded  by  the  Archbishop  of  Paris ;  he  even  called  to  mind, 
when  he  began  to  give  his  course  in  Hebrew  grammar,  that 
the  present  professor  at  the  Sorbonne  had  begun  his  career  in 
the  same  way.  At  any  rate,  he  wants  his  mother  and  his 
sister  with  him.  "I  can  never  be  in  my  normal  state,"  he 
writes,  "unless  I  can  join  with  my  study  and  thought  the 
joys  of  the  heart  and  of  love.'"'^  Meanwhile  he  continued 
his  studies  at  Saint  Sulpice. 

Among  these  studies  was  German,  which  he  took  up 
seriously  during  this  second  year  ati  the  Seminary,  being 
assisted  by  a  fellow  student  from  Alsace.     He  began  with 

"December  1,  1844, 

26 


SAINT  SULPICE 

Lessing's  Fables,  ^^  not  having  progressed  very  far  in  his 
previous  attempt,  and  by  summer  he  had  advanced  suf- 
ficiently to  get  into  the  spirit  of  the  literature.  This  reading 
marked  an  epoch  in  his  life.  "I  seemed  to  enter  a  temple, 
when  I  contemplated  this  literature,  so  pure,  so  lofty,  so 
moral,  so  religious,  this  word  being  taken  in  its  highest  sense. 
"What  a  lofty  conception  of  man  and  of  life !  How  far  they 
are  from  those  miserable  points  of  view  in  which  the  end 
of  humanity  is  brought  down  to  the  wretched  proportions 
of  pleasure  and  utility!  They  seem  to  me  to  constitute  in 
the  history  of  the  human  spirit  an  immediate  reaction  against 
the  eighteenth  century,  in  substituting  pure  moral  ideas 
and  the  ideal  for  its  too  realistic  conceptions  and  its  ma- 
terial positiveness.  ...  In  truth,  life  would  be  worthless  if 
man's  faculties  were  limited  to  what  he  can  touch.  What 
still  more  charms  me  in  them  is  the  happy  combination  they 
have  succeeded  in  bringing  about  of  poetry,  erudition  and 
philosophy,  a  combination  that  in  my  eyes  constitutes  the 
true  thinker.  Herder  and  Goethe  are  the  ones  in  whom  I 
find  the  highest  realization  of  this  intermingling ;  they  there- 
fore above  all  attract  my  sympathies.  The  second,  however, 
is  not  moral  enough,  Faust  is  admirable  for  its  philosophy, 
but  desolating  in  its  skepticism;  the  world  is  not  like  that; 
there  is  absolute  truth  and  absolute  good ;  the  first  must  be 
believed,  the  second  practiced."''*  He  finds  that  the  paint- 
ing of  the  agony  of  doubt  in  Faust  is  in  places  like  his  own 
autobiography.    The  decisive  step  was  at  hand. 


The  subdeaconate,  to  which  he  should  have  been  ordained 
in  April,  he  had  refused.  To  Henriette  he  writes  that  this 
refusal  was  owing  to  the  fact  that  he  does  not  sufficiently 

"Letter,  December  1,  1844. 

"To  Henriette,  September  22,  1845. 

27 


ERNEST  RENAN 

believe ;  his  reason,  claiming  its  rights  and  sincerely  under- 
taking rational  verification  of  dogma,  had  shown  that,  while 
Christianity  was  not  false,  it  was  not  absolute  truth;  hence 
he  had  ceased  to  be  a  Catholic,  yet  strangely  enough,  he 
clings  to  the  idea  that  the  change  is  only  temporary,  and 
that  he  may  return;  since  he  only  hesitates,  he  may  con- 
scientiously remain  in  the  Seminary.  **  To  his  mother  he  is 
more  disingenuous,  emphasizing  the  point  that,  if  he  were 
subdeacon,  the  breviary  would  take  an  hour  and  a  half  daily 
from  his  studies,  and  declaring  that,  as  his  age  obliges  him 
to  put  some  intervals  between  the  grades  of  the  priesthood, 
the  delay  had  better  come  at  this  point.  °^  To  his  friend 
Liart,  who,  in  spite  of  his  doubts,  had  become  a  priest,  he 
writes  °^ :  *  *  I  have  fully  decided  not  to  accept  the  subdeacon- 
ate  at  the  next  ordination.  That  cannot  appear  singular  to 
any  one,  since  my  age  obliges  me  to  put  an  interval  between 
my  orders.  But  what  is  opinion  to  me?  ...  I  do  not  need 
to  ask  your  silence.  You  understand  that  my  mother  must 
have  every  consideration.  I  had  rather  die  than  give  her  a 
minute  of  pain. ' '  ^^  Like  many  others,  he  grasped  at  straws 
to  save  himself  in  the  shipwreck  of  his  faith,  but  he  could 
not  accept  the  illusion  of  the  liberal  Catholics,  who  think 
they  are  privileged  to  select  certain  dogmas  for  belief,  while 
rejecting  others.  What  he  had  been  taught,  scholasticism, 
theology,  Hebrew,  he  took  seriously,  so  that,  while  his  in- 
ward sentiments  were  unchanged,  each  day  a  link  in  the 
chain  of  his  faith  was  broken,  and  a  single  broken  link  was 
enough  to  destroy  the  whole  chain.  The  process  was  achieved, 
not  by  metaphysical,  political  or  moral,  but  by  philological 
and  critical  reasoning.  No  self-imposed  fiction  could  keep  up 
his  belief  in  the  supernatural.    How  little  his  spiritual  di- 

"  April  11,  1845. 
"May  2,   1845. 
"March   22,    1845. 
"Souvenirs,  pp.  308-310. 

28 


BREACH  WITH  THE  CHURCH 

rectors  comprehended  his  case  is  shown  by  their  advice  that 
he  should  pay  no  attention  to  his  doubts,  but  regard  them 
as  temptations  of  the  enemy,  which  were  unworthy  of  no- 
tice. It  is  not  by  such  wornout  formulas  that  the  modern 
critical  spirit  is  to  be  exorcised. 

The  vacation  of  1845,  spent  in  Brittany,  gave  the  freedom 
needed  to  assure  the  final  separation  of  Renan  from  the 
Church.  How  far  he  had  gone  is  shown  by  the  fact  that 
he  ceased  taking  the  sacraments,  '*  On  September  6,  he 
wrote  a  long  letter  to  his  director  announcing  his  final  re- 
nunciation of  the  priesthood.  Returning  to  Paris,  on  the 
evening  of  October  9,  with  the  expectation  that  he  could 
tide  along  for  some  time  with  half  measures,  he  found  that 
Archbishop  Affre  had  transferred  him  to  the  Carmelite 
school  of  higher  studies,  which  had  just  been  founded.  *° 
Instant  decision  was  thus  forced  upon  him ;  when  the  pres- 
ence of  the  Archbishop  was  announced  a  little  later  that 
same  afternoon,  he  avoided  an  interview,  announced  to  his 
directors  that  he  would  not  continue  at  the  Seminary,  took 
cordial  leave  of  them,  and  passed  from  Saint  Sulpice  to  a 
neighboring  hotel.  He  carried  with  him  the  esteem  and 
affection  of  his  former  teachers,  who  were  vainly  persuaded 
that  he  would  soon  return.  ®^ 

Throughout  this  whole  period  of  painful  uncertainty, 
Henriette  had  been  through  her  letters  his  constant  support. 
In  the  indecisions  that  played  over  the  surface  of  a  funda- 
mentally steadfast  nature,  Renan  somewhat  resembled  one 

"According  to  Cognat,  Benan  still  went  to  confession  on  November 
12. 

"See  letter  of  November  12  to  Abb6  Cognat  in  appendix  of  Sou- 
venirs. Cognat  also  was  transferred  to  this  school  on  the  order  of 
the  Archbishop. 

"  To  Henriette,  October  13,  1845.  October  6,  the  date  of  his  de- 
parture given  in  Souvenirs,  p.  324,  is  one  of  the  slight  inaccuracies  in 
which  the  book  abounds.  The  letter  of  October  13  is  dated,  not  from 
the  hotel  described  in  Souvenirs,  but  from  rue  du  Pot-de-fer,  which 
is  some  distance  from  Saint  Sulpice. 

29 


ERNEST  RENAN 

conception  of  Hamlet,  and  Henriette,  with  her  practical 
good  sense  and  self-sacrificing  affection,  was  far  more  to  him 
than  ever  Horatio  was  to  the  Dane.  The  principles  of  ac- 
tion and  the  plan  that  was  finally  carried  out  were,  how- 
ever, entirely  Renan  's ;  encouragement,  moral  support,  finan- 
cial aid  and  helpful  suggestions  were  contributed  by  Henri- 
ette. The  result  was  a  program,  intelligently  conceived  and 
tenaciously  adhered  to.  The  basic  idea  was  that  the  present 
should  be  sacrificed  to  the  future,  and  that  the  future  was 
to  be  a  life  of  independent  study  and  research,  with  suf- 
ficient income  to  allow  brother,  sister  and  mother  to  live 
together.  From  this  idea  Renan  never  deviated,  and  his 
persistence  was  crowned  with  the  most  astonishing  success. 
Whatever  vacillation  he  displayed  was  momentary  and  su- 
perficial ;  at  heart  and  in  essentials,  he  never  wavered. 

Henriette  echoed  his  thought.  Not  one  word  from  her 
ever  urged  him  to  renounce  his  belief;  not  one  argument 
did  she  advance  against  creed  or  priestly  career.  She  is 
glad  that  he  is  seriously  considering  his  future,  concerning 
which  he  must  not  be  precipitate  in  taking  obligations.  How 
can  you  expect  independence  in  the  Church?  she  asks, 
merely  posing  the  question  and  leaving  him  to  decide.  '* 
The  final  step,  she  tells  him,  while  he  is  still  hesitating  on 
the  brink,  should  come,  not  from  external  influences,  but 
from  enlightened  and  free  will.  ®^  She  does  not  believe  that 
he  will  return  to  his  faith,  ^*  though  it  is  true  she  is  often 
afraid  that  he  will  not  persist  in  his  resolutions.  Other  later 
friends  also  sometimes  spoke  to  Renan  as  though  he  were 
without  will  power ;  but  how  many  lives  do  we  find  proceed- 
ing so  undeviatingly  across  obstacles  and  discouragements 
to  a  clearly  perceived  goal?  In  following  his  aim,  he  was 
neither  irresolute  nor  unpractical,  however  often  he  is  will- 

•»  October   30,    1842. 
"February  28,  1845. 
•*June  1,  1845. 

30 


BREACH  WITH  THE  CHURCH 

ing  to  entertain  us  with  this  fiction.  As  early  as  Septemher 
15, 1842,  he  had  determined  on  an  independent  life  of  study, 
and  he  never  afterward  thought  of  entering  the  priesthood, 
except  on  this  condition.  He  later  toys  with  Henriette'8 
idea  of  travel  in  Germany,  but  ultimately  rejects  it.  He  is 
distinctly  averse  to  adopting  secondary  teaching  as  a  pro- 
fession, ®'  and  he  always  clings  obstinately  to  this  resolution. 
He  will  accept  no  position  unless  it  allows  him  ample  time 
for  study,  for  it  is  bad  calculation  to  sacrifice  fruitful  years 
for  a  little  money.  He  will  take  his  degrees,  with  his  eye 
on  the  College  de  France  and  the  ficole  Normale,  but  for 
support  during  the  period  of  preparation,  he  will  not  be  a 
teacher,  but  a  pensionary  giving  service.  Every  step  that 
he  took  was  the  result  of  his  own  reflection,  and  in  every 
step,  after  he  had  decided  it,  he  had  the  approval  and  sym- 
pathy of  Henriette.  This  sympathy  was  necessary  to  him — 
"Her  exquisite  letters,"  he  says,  "were  at  this  moment  de- 
cisive for  my  life.  They  were  my  consolation  and  sup- 
port. ' '  ®®  His  sister 's  introductions  to  people  of  influence 
were  useful,  and  the  1500  francs  "^  she  sent  him  on  September 
16,  1845,  though  he  used  little  of  the  money,  gave  him  finan- 
cial peace  of  mind.  Her  practical  efforts  to  secure  him 
lodgings  came  to  naught,  and  we  do  not  know  whether  he 
followed  her  advice  about  the  color  of  his  lay  clothes,  though 
he  probably  did,  ®^ 

"April  16,  1844. 

"Ma  Sasur  Henriette,  p.  29. 

"  In  the  letters  it  is  1500 :  in  Ma  Soeur  Senriette  and  Souvenirg, 
1200. 

"  In  Quntre  Portraits,  Jules  Simon,  who  was  from  Brittany,  tells 
of  his  first  meeting  with  Renan.  The  younger  man,  still  in  ecclesi- 
astical costume,  visited  his  compatriot  in  his  room.  "I  no  longer 
believe,"  said  he  tragically.  "Drop  that  costume,"  said  Simon.  But 
Benan  protested  that  his  uncle,  the  abb6,  had  paid  all  the  expenses 
of  his  education.  "If  I  go,  I  rob  him,"  he  said.  Thereupon  Simon 
laughed,  and  the  two  went  in  search  of  a  frock  coat.  This  uncle  is 
supposed  to  be  the  Abb6  Mignot,  but  there  is  no  mention  of  him  in 
the   published   corresnondence,     Simon's   explanation    is   that   Benao 

3X 


ERNEST  RENAN 

Henriette's  love  for  her  brother  was  extraordinary.  To 
her  mother,  she  calls  him  ' '  our  good  and  dear  child. ' ' '' 
"I  have  mingled  my  life  in  yours,  my  dear  Ernest,"  she 
writes.  "Be  assured  that  I  will  never  separate  it  from 
yours. ' '  ""^  She  was,  in  fact,  his  second  mother,  and  the  one 
in  whom  he  had  the  closest  confidence. 

His  relations  to  his  mother  herself  were  of  the  most  ten- 
der affection.  Never  was  there  a  more  considerate  and  lov- 
ing son.  It  was  this  feeling,  indeed,  that  made  his  separa- 
tion from  the  Church  so  painful,  and  it  also  involved  him  in 
a  considerable  network  of  deceit.  When  writing  to  her,  he 
always  emphasizes  the  approval  of  his  directors,  his  agree- 
ment with  the  Church,  and  the  pious  exercises  in  which  he 
takes  part.  After  the  tonsure,  and  until  he  left  Saint  Sul- 
pice,  he  invariably  adds  to  his  signature  the  words  "ton- 
sured clerk,"  though  this  form  never  appears  in  his  letters 
to  Henriette.  His  spiritual  directors  knew  of  his  doubts 
while  his  mother  was  kept  in  ignorance.  He  begs  Henriette 
to  keep  his  secret,  which  she  faithfully  does,  and  they  often 
write  one  another  letters  which  the  mother  may  see  without 
harm,  at  the  same  time  putting  the  part  to  be  concealed 
from  her  on  a  separate  sheet.  All  this  was  natural  enough, 
but  it  was  useless.  The  mother's  intuition  perceived  some 
undefined  change  in  her  Ernest,  and  she  once  vented  her 
irritation  on  a  volume  he  was  reading,^^  though  this  particu- 
lar volume  happened  to  be  by  de  Bonald,  one  of  the  pillars 
of  the  Church.  More  definite  was  the  impression  she  re- 
ceived from  a  letter  Renan  had  written  to  Liart,  which  ar- 

was  saying  to  him  what  he  wanted  repeated  to  common  Breton 
friends  and  thus  spread  broadcast.  It  may  be  added,  however,  that 
Jules  Simon's  memory  is  sometimes  at  fault.  He  says,  for  example, 
that  Taschereau  took  Kenan  at  the  Library  in  1848:  Taschereau 
himself  was  not  appointed  till  1852. 

"July  1,  1840. 

"February  28,  1845. 

"This  story  is  repeated  by  Eenan  half  a  dozen  times  in  different 
writings. 

3^ 


BREACH  WITH  THE  CHURCH 

rived  at  Treguier  after  his  friend 's  death  and  thus  fell  into 
his  mother 's  hands.  ^^  What  must  she  have  thought  of  such 
a  passage  as  this :  "I  am  consoled  in  thinking  of  Jesus,  so 
beautiful,  so  pure,  so  ideal  in  his  sufferings,  that  under  any 
hypothesis  I  shall  always  love  him.  Even  if  I  should  aban- 
don him,  it  ought  to  please  him,  for  it  would  be  a  sacrifice 
to  conscience,  and  God  knows  what  it  would  cost  me. ' '  Per- 
haps even  more  disquieting  would  be  some  words  toward 
the  close :  "I  need  not  ask  you  to  keep  silent.  You  under- 
stand that  there  must  be  precautions  on  account  of  my 
mother.  I  had  rather  die  than  cause  her  a  moment  of  pain." 
After  this,  it  would  seem  as  though  hypocrisy  were  futile, 
but  Renan  labored  under  the  mask  for  another  six  months. 
At  length,  Henriette  sensibly  cut  the  knot  and  ended  all 
tergiversations  by  a  frank  but  tempered  statement  of  the 
facts."  The  mother's  heart  was  not  broken,  and  Renan 
had  no  further  painful  waverings.  Perhaps  this  experience 
was  the  basis  of  his  sister's  convincing  argument  against 
lying,  which  led  him  to  renounce  the  practice  entirely  in 
1851.  '* 

Renan 's  habitudes,  affections,  interests,  ambitions  were 
all  bound  up  with  the  Church.  No  one  who  has  been  placed 
in  a  situation  even  slightly  similar  will  be  surprised  at  his 
twistings  and  turnings,  and  his  alternations  of  hesitation 
and  fixed  purpose.  He  would  have  been  glad  to  stifle  the 
voice  of  his  reason,  but  he  was  unable  to  do  so.  This  voice 
called  him  out  of  the  comfortable  shielded  fold  into  the 
wilderness — for  to  him  the  world  was  unknown,  repellant, 
appalling — and  he  obeyed  the  inexorable  call. 

"See  letter  to  Henriette,  June  1,  1845.    This  is  the  letter  published 
in  Souvenirs,  p.  308. 
"March  15,  1846. 
^*  Souvenirs,  p.  363. 


CHAPTER  II 


SECULAE  studies;  berthelot;  youthful  notebooks 
(1845-1846) 

On  leaving  the  Seminary,  October  9,  1845,  Kenan  passed  a  few 
days  in  the  neighboring  "hotel  of  Mile.  Celeste,"  kept  exclusively 
for  people  connected  with  Saint  Sulpice.  M.  Dupanloup  and 
Kenan's  former  superior,  M.  Carbon,  procured  him  a  place  as 
supervisor  of  studies  under  the  Abbe  Gratry,  Director  of  the 
Jesuit  College  Stanislas.  Though  expecting  to  remain  a  year, 
Kenan  left  in  about  a  fortnight,  because  he  was  obliged  to  wear 
the  ecclesiastical  habit.  About  November  2,  he  went  to  a  pupils' 
boarding  house  kept  by  M.  Crouzet  (rue  des-deux-Eglises,  now  rue 
de-l'Abbe-de-l'fipee),  which  was  attached  to  the  Lycee  Henri  IV. 
Here,  in  consideration  of  reviewing  lessons  for  two  hours  every 
evening,  he  was  allowed  board  and  lodging  and  laundry.  He  also 
had  a  private  pupil  in  mathematics  three  hours  a  week,  for  which 
he  was  paid  25  francs  a  month.  *  In  this  place  he  remained  until 
March,  1849.  He  attended  courses  at  the  Sorbonne  and  the  Col- 
lege de  France,  which  were  given  gratis,  and  he  studied  in  libra- 
ries, having  special  permission  to  take  books  from  Sainte  Gene- 
vieve. On  encouragement  from  M.  Le  Hir  of  Saint  Sulpice,  he 
began  writing  a  Hebrew  grammar.  The  friendship  between  Kenan 
and  Berthelot  began  at  Crouzet's  in  November,  1845.  On  January 
26,  1846,  Kenan  passed  his  examinations  for  the  baccalaureate. 
Berthelot,  having  completed  his  studies  at  the  Lycee,  left  Crouzet's 
at  the  end  of  the  academic  year  and  went  to  reside  at  his  father's, 
across  the  Seine,  but  there  was  no  interruption  in  the  intimacy 
between  the  two  young  men.  During  this  period,  Kenan  was  much 
occupied  with  preparation  for  the  examination  for  the  licence,  in 
addition  to  his  oriental  studies.  He  also  filled  several  notebooks 
with  his  reflections.  The  examination  for  the  licence  he  passed 
October  23,  1847,  after  a  summer  spent  in  Paris.    The  term  that 

'Kegarding  money  values,  it  is  interesting  to  note  that  this  was 
the  monthly  rent  paid  by  Sainte-Beuve  for  his  two  rooms  in  the  hotel 
de  Kouen,  where  be  lived  till  1840. 

34 


SECULAR  STUDIES 

followed,  he  studied  Sanscrit  and  comparative  philology  under 
Bumouf,  and  was  profoundly  influenced  by  his  learning  and  his 
character.  He  became  a  member  of  the  Societe  Asiatique  *  (received 
in  the  seance  of  August  13,  1847),  qualifying  as  a  student  in  the 
school  of  oriental  languages. 

This  same  year  he  took  the  Prix  Volney  of  1,200  francs  with  an 
essay:  "Histoire  generale  et  systeme  compare  des  langues  semi- 
tiques.'*  The  summer  of  1847  was  spent  in  Brittany,  In  1848  Renan 
was  deeply  impressed  by  the  insuiTections  in  Paris,  though  the  street 
fighting  did  not  interrupt  his  studies.  Up  to  May  he  was  working 
on  a  memoire,  "The  Study  of  the  Greek  Language  in  the  "West  of 
Europe  from  the  End  of  the  Fifth  Century  to  the  End  of  the 
Fourteenth,"  for  the  prize  (2,000  francs)  of  the  Academy  of 
Inscriptions  and  Belles  Lettres.  His  work  was  crowned  by  the 
Academy  on  September  1.  In  September,  too,  he  stood  first  in 
the  competition  for  agrege  in  philosophy,  and  soon  after  he  was 
offered  a  position  in  the  Lycee  at  Vendome,  which  he  declined, 
having  been  nominally  professor  from  September  17  to  October  7. 
At  this  time  (October,  1848-March,  1849)  he  wrote  The  Future  of 
Science.  At  the  Lycee  of  Versailles,  from  April  13  to  May  27, 
1849,  he  lectured  to  the  class  in  philosophy  in  place  of  M.  Bersot, 
who  was  making  a  campaign  at  Bordeaux  for  election  to  the 
AssemhUe  Legislative.^  He  was  also  working  on  both  his  Latin  and 
bis  French  thesis  for  the  doctorate.  He  published  several  important 
articles  in  La  Liberie  de  Penser  and  he  contributed  also  to  the 
Journal  general  de  I'instruction  publique  et  des  cultes,  the  Ga- 
zette de  I'instruction  publique  and  the  Journal  Asiatique.  The 
summer  of  1849  was  spent  in  Brittany,  where  he  found  valuable 
material  for  his  work  on  Averroism  in  the  libraries  of  Saint-Malo 
and  Avranches,  Soon  after  his  return  to  Paris,  he  was  sent  by 
the  government  on  recommendation  of  the  Academy  of  Inscrip- 
tions and  Belles  Lettres  on  a  mission  to  examine  and  report  on 
oriental  manuscripts  in  the  libraries  of  Italy. 

I 

The  College  Stanislas,  where  Renan  found  his  first  posi- 

*The  dues  of  the  society  were  30  francs,  but  he  gained  access  to 
a  library  of  oriental  books,  obtained  publications  at  a  reduced  price, 
and,  above  all,  became  personally  acquainted  with  the  leading  oriental 
scholars  of  the  day, 

*  See  H6mon,  Bersot  et  sds  amis,  pp.  93,  94, 

35 


ERNEST  RENAN 

tion  after  leaving  Saint  Sulpice,  was  a  regular  school  of  the 
University,  a  connection  which  would  facilitate  his  taking 
his  baccalaureate  degree.  At  the  same  time  the  institution 
was  entirely  under  ecclesiastical  control,  and  this  fact  he 
counted  upon  to  make  his  step  seem  less  awful  to  his  mother. 
The  ecclesiastical  character  of  the  place,  however,  made  his 
situation  intolerable.  Wearing  the  garments  of  a  church- 
man was  an  outward  profession  of  a  faith  he  had  relin- 
quished. The  director,  moreover,  though  kind  and  good, 
was  of  a  type  of  mind  that  Renan  could  not  get  along  with. 
"I  feel,"  he  writes,  "that  my  reasons  have  no  weight  with 
him ;  for  he  is  persuaded,  and  he  protests  to  me,  that  at  the 
end  of  a  few  months  of  intellectual  relations  with  him,  I 
shall  have  changed  my  mind.  But  I,  knowing  how  things 
stand,  can  no  longer  accept  such  reasoning.  This  puts  us 
both  in  a  peculiar  situation,  in  which  it  is  as  impossible 
for  us  to  understand  one  another  as  two  men  who  speak 
different  languages."* 

His  complete  emancipation  was  accomplished  only  when 
he  transferred  himself  to  the  institution  of  M.  Crouzet,  a 
move  which  he  concealed  from  his  mother  for  two  months 
and  which  he  misrepresented  after  revealing  it  to  her: 
"Certain  artifices  which  it  was  perhaps  wrong  for  me  to 
adopt. ' '  ^  Those  passages  in  his  letters  dealing  with  this 
deception  are  most  unpleasing  and  are  to  be  condoned  only 
because  the  motive  was  an  extreme  sensitiveness  over  giving 
pain  to  one  he  so  deeply  loved.  His  mother,  on  her  part, 
seems  to  have  displayed  such  good  sense  as  to  make  any 
double-dealing  unnecessary,  a  point  that  the  straightforward 

*  To  Henriette,  October  31,  1845.  To  objections  (e.  g.,  story  of 
Samson)  the  theologians  reply  that  these  have  been  reduced  to  dust 
a  hundred  times,  referring  you  to  books  they  are  sure  you  will  not 
read.  They  are  superficial  men  resting  on  the  superficiality  of  others. 
"Jesus,  I  have  nevertheless  received  thee  this  morning,  but  this  is 
for  my  rational  part. ' '  Dimanche,  20  juillet  1845.  By  ' '  this ' '  Eenan 
seems  to  mean  his  note.     Cdhiers  de  jextnesse,  p.  99,  note  39. 

'Souvenirs,  p.  330. 

36 


SECULAR  STUDIES 

Henriette  soon  perceived.  She  is  in  fact  chiefly  concerned 
about  her  son's  health  and  comfort,  his  relinquishment  of 
his  neat  room  with  a  fire  to  poke  for  enjoyment  rather  than 
for  heat,  the  danger  she  thought  he  ran  of  being  knocked 
down  by  ruflSans  in  the  street  when  coming  at  night  from 
the  library.  "No,  my  child,"  she  writes,  "you  will  not 
be  placed  in  the  cruel  alternative  of  deciding  between  your 
conscience  and  my  earnest  wishes.  I  put  the  scepter  in  your 
hands,  persuaded  that  you  will  not  let  it  fall  in  the  mud. ' '  • 
In  fact,  she  bears  her  disappointment  without  complaint  and 
the  poignancy  of  desperate  grief  seems  to  be  rather  in  the 
son's  imagination  than  in  the  mother's  heart.  After  mat- 
ters had  been  cleared  up  by  Henriette 's  letter,  she  was  re- 
lieved of  her  suspicions,  and  Renan  was  able  to  go  ahead 
untroubled  by  the  entanglements  of  a  false  position. 

While  it  cannot  be  said  of  R^nan,  as  La  Rochefoucauld 
said  of  himself,  that  he  never  knew  a  trouble  that  a  half 
hour's  reading  would  not  console,  yet  there  can  be  no  doubt 
that  books,  and  meditations  upon  books,  now  furnished  a 
potent  medicine  for  his  moral  distress,  as  in  later  life  they 
helped  to  alleviate  intense  physical  suffering.  His  situation 
at  Crouzet's  often  humiliated  and  exasperated  him,  but  he 
could  hardly  have  found  elsewhere  such  comfort  combined 
with  so  much  freedom.  He  had  a  room  on  the  third  floor, 
overlooking  the  garden  of  an  institution  for  deaf-mutes 
across  the  street  and  commanding  an  extensive  view.  All  he 
had  to  do,  in  addition  to  three  private  lessons  a  week  for 
which  he  was  paid  25  francs  a  month,  was  to  superintend 
the  studies  of  seven  boys  from  seven  to  nine  each  evening, 
a  task  that  was  at  first  a  sort  of  rehearsal  for  his  own  ex- 
aminations. The  rest  of  his  time  from  eight  in  the  morning 
to  midnight  was  devoted  to  study  in  his  room  or  in  libraries 
and  to  attendance  at  lectures  at  the  Sorbonne  and  the  Col- 

•  Letter,  February  3,  1846. 

37 


ERNEST  RENAN 

lege  de  France,  Two  evenings  a  week  he  gave  to  recreation : 
Wednesdays  he  visited  his  sister 's  friend,  Mile,  Ulliac,  where 
there  were  * '  magnetic  seances, ' '  and  Sundays  he  looked  over 
the  journals  in  the  reading  room. 

For  the  baccalaureate,  since  Renan  had  no  certificate  from 
a  state  college,  the  formalities  caused  ten  times  more  trouble 
than  the  preparation,  but  this  difficulty  was  overcome,  though 
not  without  some  slight,  but  customary,  evasions,  assisted 
by  influence.  An  important  choice  had  to  be  made  between 
the  faculty  of  letters  and  that  of  the  sciences.  Science  he 
would  have  preferred,  his  mind  being  in  his  judgment  more 
scientific  than  literary;  but  philosophy,  to  which  he  was 
dedicated,  fell,  improperly  as  he  thought,  under  literature. 
He  consoled  himself  with  the  reflection  that  history  and  the 
higher  criticism  might  save  him  from  the  empty  and  pe- 
dantic rhetoric  which  excited  his  aversion, ''  At  this  time 
he  followed  regularly  the  courses  in  letters  at  the  College  de 
France  and  the  Sorbonne,  in  addition  to  continuing  his 
oriental  studies  under  Quatremere.  Some  of  these  courses 
were  almost  intimate,  being  taken  by  but  a  handful  of  stu- 
dents. At  his  examination  for  the  degree  in  January,  his 
committee,  headed  by  Ozanam,  consisted  exclusively  of  dis- 
tinguished professors  of  the  Sorbonne.  He  was  thus  becom- 
ing personally  known  to  the  best  scholars  of  France,  several 
of  whom  began  to  manifest  a  special  interest  in  his  career. 

His  ambition  was  a  chair  in  some  branch  of  oriental 
scholarship  at  the  College  de  France,  a  dream,  he  admits, 
but  a  dream  that  he  obstinately  clung  to.  The  only  such 
chair  was  that  occupied  by  Quatremere,  who  had  already 
adopted  his  successor,  and  even  if  competition  had  been 
possible,  Renan  would  not  have  been  willing  to  supplant 
any  one.  To  teaching  modern  oriental  languages,  with  the 
aim  of  favoring  commercial  relations,  he  could  not  conse- 

'  Letters,  November  5  and  December  15,  1845. 

38 


SECULAR  STUDIES 

crate  himself.  For  a  time  the  ficole  Normale,  with  a  career 
as  professor  in  a  lycee,  was  considered,  but  this  was  soon 
definitely  abandoned,  and  he  devoted  himself  to  a  life  of 
research,  keeping  a  close  watch  for  any  opening  that  might 
present  itself.  Already  he  had  several  works  sketched,  the 
publication  of  which  might  bring  him  to  the  attention  of 
competent  judges.  He  had  great  hopes  especially  for  the 
Hebrew  grammar,  *  suggested  by  Le  Hir,  on  which  he  was 
engaged  with  all  his  fire,  and  which  was  to  be  adopted  in  the 
Sulpician  Seminaries  of  France.  He  was,  in  fact,  working 
at  many  tasks  besides  preparation  for  his  examinations.  Even 
thus  early  it  was  his  rule  to  have,  in  addition  to  his  principal 
or  dominant  study,  some  secondary  work  to  fill  up  the  in- 
tervals left  by  the  main  subject,  a  practice  which,  like  all 
the  chief  developments  of  his  youth,  remained  with  him  to 
the  end.  ^ 

From  childhood  Renan  seems  to  have  exercised  a  peculiar 
fascination  of  manners  and  mind.  The  old  Breton  priest, 
Pasco,  even  while  the  fuss  about  the  Life  of  Jesus  was  at  its 
height,  prayed  as  he  lay  dying  that  God  would  bring  back 
his  best  loved  pupil  to  the  Church.  For  a  year  after  the 
break  and  while  there  was  yet  hope  of  a  reconciliation, 
Dupanloup  continued  to  be  a  friend  and  adviser,  and  Le  Hir 
received  Renan 's  visits  every  week.  His  pupils  were  fond 
of  him  and  his  professors  seem  to  have  been  always  helpful 
and  often  very  friendly.  Mile.  Ulliac,  ^°  a  close  friend  of 
Henriette  and  herself  of  Breton  origin,  was  also  most  cor- 

•The  manuscript  of  this  grammar  coosists  of  sixteen  copy  books. 
See  Nowveaux  Cahiers,  p.  133,  note  2.  The  first  chapter  is  com- 
plete, the  rest  consists  of  observations  and  notes.  There  are  also  a 
preface  and  an  introduction.  See  Reng  d'Ys,  pp.  355,  356.  Another 
interesting  manuscript  of  youthful  days  is  the  volume  of  Psalms 
mentioned  in  Souvenirs,  p.  313.  This  is  a  complete  breviary,  con- 
taining not  only  the  Psalms,  but  also  the  prayers  and  hymns  in  He- 
brew.    Bevue  d'histoire  des  religions,  vol.  xxvii,  p.  355. 

•  For  all  these  points  see  letter  to  Henriette,  December  15,  1845. 

"  Born,  1794,  at  Lorient,  she  was  a  person  of  considerable  literary 
importance  in  her  day. 

39 


ERNEST  RENAN 

dial  and  serviceable;  but  the  relationship  that  above  all  in- 
fluenced his  thinking  and  brought  a  fresh,  invigorating  and 
unfailing  stream  into  the  current  of  his  life,  was  his  intimacy 
with  Marcelin  Berthelot. 

Writing  to  his  mother,  February  24,  1846,  Renan  tells  of 
a  fine  neighbor  who  occupies  the  opposite  room  at  Crouzet  's. 
"He  is  a  young  man  who  is  preparing  to  take  his  degrees 
in  science,  after  having  obtained  the  most  brilliant  success 
at  the  Lycee  Henry  IV  and  at  the  general  competition.  He 
is  the  son  of  one  of  the  most  celebrated  physicians  of  Paris, 
Monsieur  Berthelot.  I  have  known  few  young  persons  so 
distinguished,  so  religious,  so  serious;  it  seems  as  though  we 
were  cut  out  for  each  other.  So,  after  having  studied  one 
another  for  a  time,  keeping  within  the  limits  of  politeness, 
we  recognized  that  we  were  worthy  to  be  friends. ' ' 

Berthelot  was  eighteen,  Renan  twenty-two,  yet  Berthelot 
had  the  wider  experience  of  life.  Their  ardor  for  study  was 
equal,  while  their  fields  were  diverse.  Thus  one  supple- 
mented the  knowledge  of  the  other,  and  their  ideas  were 
shared  without  question  of  priority  or  ownership.  They 
visited  each  other 's  rooms,  walked  together,  studied  together, 
each  giving  the  other  instruction  in  his  own  specialty.  To 
Renan  there  were  thus  opened  the  vast  and  exact  perspec- 
tives of  natural  and  physical  science.  The  discussions  of  the 
two  friends  were  endless,  covering  the  universe  and  leading 
them  toward  the  new  conception  of  collective  reason  and  the 
scientific  evolution  of  human  society.  Devoted  to  exact 
knowledge  and  free  thought,  they  were  inflamed  with  a  com- 
mon disinterested  ardor  for  goodness  and  truth.  The  friend- 
ship, begun  on  this  high  plane,  was  continued  without  de- 
cline or  diminution  till  Renan 's  death.  "With  the  opening  of 
new  prospects  through  these  conversations  and  with  the  con- 
firmation of  his  historical  views  by  every  advance  in  his 
studies,  it  is  little  wonder  that,  after  Renan  had  been 
one  year  away  from  Saint  Sulpice,  he  could  scarcely  under- 

40 


YOUTHFUL  NOTEBOOKS 

stand  how  he  could  ever  have  believed  the  orthodox  theol- 
ogy." 

II 

Much  of  Kenan's  spiritual  life  from  June,  1845,  to  June, 
1846,  approximately  is  presented  in  a  group  of  nine  copy 
books  of  identical  form,  written  in  the  same  ink,  and  each 
provided  with  a  Hebrew  or  Greek  title.  These  titles  betoken, 
as  the  contents  also  indicate,  that  the  notes  in  question  were 
begun  as  jottings  of  reflections  provoked  by  his  studies 
("Harvest,"  "New  Harvest"),  and  were  continued  as  fur- 
nishing a  basis  for  future  literary  work  ("Useful  for  Many 
Things"),  and  as  constituting  a  personal  record  of  some 
of  the  battles  fought  out  in  his  mind  and  heart  ("Wrest- 
lings," "Myself").  When  the  warfare  was  practically 
over,  this  journal  of  intellectual  experiences  simmers  down 
again  to  a  purely  reflective  tone  ("My  Life,"  "Thoughts," 
"The  Cistern  of  Joseph, "  " Present  for  a  Child " ) .  In  this 
last  group  it  is  not  clear  what  meaning  is  to  be  assigned  to 
the  titles.  In  none  of  these  pages,  it  may  be  observed,  is 
there  any  mention  of  Berthelot,  and  the  influence  of  talks 
with  him  is  nowhere  obvious.  "Harvest,"  written  before 
Renan  left  the  seminary,  is  chiefly  philological,  the  philo- 
sophical notes  being  few,  and  these  few  being  largely  at- 
tached to  a  single  book,  La  Philosophie  morale  of  the  Abbe 
Louis  E.  Bautain  (Paris,  1840).  The  main  interest  in  the 
philological  notes  lies  in  their  presentation  of  certain  de- 
tails of  the  process,  a  process  of  constant  comparison,  under 
which  the  idea  of  the  Hebrew  Bible  as  an  inspired  book 
crumbled  to  pieces  in  Renan 's  mind.    Closely  connected  with 

"Eenan  went  to  confession  as  late  as  March,  1846:  see  Cahierg, 
p.  351,  n.  39.  As  note  50  speaks  of  a  letter  of  March  22,  the  inci- 
dent must  be  about  that  date.  His  breach  with  Cognat  came  in  1847, 
after  a  discussion  in  which  he  said  to  the  young  priest,  "You  don't 
believe  Jesus  is  God.  You  have  too  much  sense  for  that."  Corre- 
spondant,  January  23,  1883. 

41 


ERNEST  RENAN 

these  Bible  studies  are  a  half-dozen  entries  dealing  with 
primitive  man,  unconscious  of  himself  and  unaware  of 
natural  law.  On  the  other  hand,  the  metaphysical  specula- 
tions center  on  the  conception  of  substance  as  manifested 
in  body  and  soul.  Sometimes  we  catch  the  very  motion  of 
the  thought,  with  its  involuntary  recoils.    He  writes : 

Instinct  sees  God  everywhere  and  law  nowhere;  observation  sees 
law  everywhere  (hence  its  tone  of  mockery  and  pride)  and  God 
nowhere.  True  philosophy  sees  God  everywhere,  acting  every- 
where freely  through  laws,  which  are  invariable  because  they 
are  perfect. — Here  is  real  providence,  more  beautiful,  more  true, 
less  poetical  perhaps  than  that  of  our  fathers,  but  more  rational 
and  more  worthy  of  God;  I  will  say  even  more  active  and  vast. — 
The  ancients,  busying  God  with  man  and  certain  great  matters, 
eliminated  him,  in  their  gross  conception  at  least,  from  little  oc- 
currences, which  it  seemed  could  happen  very  well  without  him. 
As  for  us,  we  put  him  everywhere.  Of  necessity  he  acts  in  the 
motion  of  an  atom.     Act!  a  word  entirely  relative. 

Especially  interesting  is  the  final  entry,  for  it  contains 
in  germ  the  essential  idea  of  The  Future  of  Science: 

M.  Bautain  has  luminous  ideas  about  certain  branches  of  re- 
search to  be  created  in  the  sciences.  .  .  .  He  gives  an  idea  of  a 
true  new  science  to  be  created,  a  science  of  which  I  too  have  had 
an  idea.  It  is  a  sort  of  general  physics,  a  physiology  of  the 
world,  dealing,  not  with  the  analysis  of  elements,  but  with  their 
synthesis  in  the  world,  which  would  be  in  relation  to  physics  and 
chemistry,  as  they  now  exist,  what  physiology  is  to  anatomy. — 
This  was  the  point  of  view  of  the  ancients;  it  led  them  into 
fallacy,  for  one  must  not  begin  here;  but  we  ought  now  to  finish 
here.  In  a  word,  there  are  relations  of  the  composite,  as  there 
are  relations  of  the  simple;  chemistry  studies  the  relations  of  the 
simple;  physics  the  relations  of  the  composite;  but  what  I  speak 
of  would  deal  with  the  relations  of  composites  of  composites." 

The  "New  Harvest"  is,  in  contrast,  almost  exclusively 
speculative,  there  being  but  two  linguistic  notes.  The  young 
thinker  is  much  concerned  with  the  universe,  with  substance, 

**  Cdhiers,  pp.  50,  51,  n.  57. 

42 


YOUTHFUL  NOTEBOOKS 

force,  monads,  atoms;  he  meditates  on  psychological  expe- 
riences and  problems,  and  is  still  much  occupied  with  Bau- 
tain  and  with  the  Scotch  school;  yet  he  finds  a  thousand 
facets  to  the  world,  a  thousand  points  of  view,  a  thousand 
operations  of  science,  all  equally  true.  (16.)  The  theory 
of  the  spontaneous  and  of  progress  from  instinct  to  reflec- 
tion begins  to  emerge.  But  what  is  most  significant  is  the 
break  after  entry  42:  "Five  months'  interval — ^Vacation. 
Departure  from  the  seminary." 

Just  before  this  crisis  come  some  notable  entries,  which 
manifest  his  agitation.  He  states  his  fundamental  principle 
of  the  inward  religious  life  to  be  that  it  is  not  a  separate 
faculty,  a  pigeonhole  apart,  but  a  face  of  all  things,  of  every 
duty,  of  every  exertion,  there  being  no  sacred  and  profane 
objects,  but  merely  sacred  and  profane  outlooks.  (35.)  He 
longs  to  embrace  everything  from  every  point  of  view.  *  *  0 
God,  give  this  to  me,  and  I  will  suffer  all.  But  not  to  be 
sure  is  the  sad  thing;  and  even  if  sure  about  oneself,  can 
one  be  sure  of  what  is  outside?"  (36.)  Above  all,  his 
mission  presents  itself,  though  by  no  means  in  clear  outline. 
It  is,  at  any  rate,  seen  to  be  a  religious  mission,  and  it  is  hos- 
tile to  orthodoxy.  "Such  is  their  tone  (the  apologists),  de- 
clamatory generalities;  where  analysis  is  required,  a  silly 
a  priori,  resolved  not  to  yield  to  all  the  difficulties  shown 
them.  0  Germany!  who  will  transplant  thee  to  France! 
Heavens,  can  I  do  what  I  want  to  do  ?  I,  so  feeble,  so  poor, 
alone  in  the  world,  knowing  no  one?  But  Luther  was  as 
I  am.  Jesus  sustain  me!"  (38,  p.  97.)  And  again:  "My 
God,  my  God,  express  my  thought  for  me,  or  give  it  to  me 
as  well  expressed  as  you  give  it  strong  and  true !"  (39,  p.  98.) 

"When  he  resumes  his  jottings,  however,  he  is  purely  in- 
tellectual again,  and  he  congratulates  himself.  "It  is  a 
consolation  to  note  that,  in  the  midst  of  these  cruel  realities 
that  torment  me  I  have  enough  courage  and  faith  in  science 
to  pursue  so  coolly  my  line  of  speculation."  (43,  p.  102.) 

43 


ERNEST  RENAN 

The  third  Notebook,  "Useful  for  Many  Things,"  is  mostly 
concerned  with  the  courses  Renan  was  taking  at  the  Uni- 
versity and  with  his  general  reading,  though  he  also  deals 
with  psychology,  especially  with  dreams,  and  continues  to 
meditate  on  substance.  Particularly  to  be  noticed  is  a  fur- 
ther expression  of  some  fundamental  ideas,  all  of  which  are 
found  in  The  Future  of  Science;  certain  reflections,  for  ex- 
ample, which  are  still  not  much  developed:  synthetic  scien- 
tific beauty  after  analysis  (33),  the  curious  and  the  useful 
not  scientific  aims  (42),  the  idea  of  law  not  proved  by  any 
one  experiment,  but  a  result  of  the  spirit  of  all  (45).  The 
constantly  repeated  notion  of  the  many  faces  of  things  ap- 
pears again:  Why  do  the  learned  quarrel?  Because  they 
speak  different  languages  and  hence  though  each  tells  the 
truth,  they  do  not  understand  one  another.  (65,  69.)  But 
the  most  persistent  and  characteristic  tone  in  this  group  of 
notes  is  the  preference  expressed  for  primitive  literature — 
impersonal,  embodying  the  true  life  of  the  people,  therefore 
holy — over  the  literature  of  artificial  society  and  of  the 
salon,  which  is  treated  with  utter  contempt.  (1,  4,  31,  35, 
36,  44,  46,  60.) 

Ill 

Quite  different  is  the  general  trend  of  the  fourth  Note- 
book, which  is  called  "Nephthali"  or  "Wrestlings,"  and 
which  was  begun  March  7,  1846.  Here  we  have  indeed  many 
entries  of  the  same  philosophical  and  literary  character  as 
those  already  mentioned,  together  with  records  of  visits  to 
professors  and  of  university  doctoral  disputations ;  but  what 
in  general  distinguishes  these  notes  from  those  of  the  pre- 
ceding copy  books  is  the  definite  effort  to  construct  a  group 
of  beliefs  destined  to  fill  the  place  of  the  discarded  dogmas  of 
Catholicism.  This  effort  transpires  in  the  motto  from  the 
book  of  Genesis,  "I  have  fought  the  fights  of  God  and  have 

44 


YOUTHFUL  NOTEBOOKS 

prevailed,"  a  motto  which  Renan  wishes  to  stand  for  his 
epitaph.  (9.)  All  the  important  thoughts,  even  when  not  a 
part  of  his  religious  project,  are  either  in  origin  or  applica- 
tion personal.  If  he  views  action  and  reaction  in  the  uni- 
verse, his  eye  is  fixed  on  his  own  functionings  (7,  113) ; 
if  he  weighs  the  value  of  erudition,  the  determining  factor 
is  the  use  he  himself  can  make  of  it  (61).  When  he  holds 
that  everything  must  be  sacred,  he  suggests  "my  heart,  my 
mother,  my  books, ' '  and  he  insists  on  mysticism  for  his  own 
part,  in  the  sense  that  all  belongs  to  God  and  to  the  ideal, 
but  this  mysticism  must  be  positive  and  subject  to  the  scien- 
tific method.  (84.) 

Christianity  he  rejects,  but  still  loves ;  it  is  an  old  friend 
(53) ;  logic  carries  him  to  a  hard  and  sharp-cut  antagonism, 
but  a  higher  instinct  holds  him  back ;  he  calls  himself  Chris- 
tian, he  admits  and  explains  Christianity.  "I  seek,"  he 
adds,  "the  true  point  of  view."  (29.)  When  he  hears  some 
of  his  professors  utter  stupid  remarks  about  Christian  super- 
stition, he  is  seized  with  the  desire  to  write  a  book  showing 
definitely  how  Christianity  should  be  regarded.  "I  would 
praise  it,  exalt  it,  cover  it  with  kisses,  but  humani2e  it.  Man 
or  God,  it  is  all  one,  even  without  pantheism.  I  shall  react 
against  all  these  men  when  the  time  comes."  (50,  p.  235.) 
A  book  is  already  forming  in  his  mind  and  heart.  "They 
will  be  surprised  when  they  see  me  come  forth  armed  from 
head  to  foot."  (51.)  God  he  cannot  represent;  all  our 
notions  are  confounded,  all  our  words  froth  (127),  but  nega- 
tively he  finds  psychological  anthropomorphism  as  absurd 
as  material  anthropomorphism  (120),  and  he  devotes  it  to 
destruction.  Providence  and  liberty,  for  example,  are  only 
human  expressions,  without  meaning  when  applied  to  God. 
'  *  All  is  law,  nothing  but  law ;  a  free  hand,  with  the  exception 
of  man,  has  not  been  interposed  in  the  world  since  its  crea- 
tion. .  .  .  And  yet,  at  bottom,  the  fact  of  providence  is 
true.    It  is  the  words  provideTice,  governing,  etc.,  that  are 

45 


ERNEST  RENAN 

false.  For  the  establisher  of  laws  acts  through  his  laws,  and 
in  this  sense  God  does  everything."  (132.) 

What  we  get  here  are  but  glimpses  of  the  workings  of 
Renan's  mind  and  no  consecutive  view.  There  is,  for  in- 
stance, not  one  word  of  the  animated  discussions  with  Ber- 
thelot,  so  decisive  for  the  development  of  both,  although 
this  was  the  epoch  of  their  daily  meetings.  The  Notebooks 
contain,  indeed,  what  may  be  regarded  as  almost  casual  frag- 
ments of  thought,  yet  they  yield  evidence  that  Renan  was  re- 
flecting more  or  less  methodically  on  the  articles  of  his  creed. 
After  God,  immortality.  "I  have  just  considered  immortal- 
ity at  a  moment  when,  vividly  penetrated  with  lofty  thoughts 
and  with  the  suprasensible  aim  of  man,  I  perceived  that  all 
this  had  no  meaning  without  immortality.  That  is  my 
proof."  (142.) 

His  central  problem  is  already  fixed.  "The  secret  of  or- 
ganic life,  the  passage  from  the  raw  material  to  the  vital  is 
that  which  has  always  most  preoccupied  me.  For  me  the 
problem  of  science  is  there.  I  cannot  believe  that  the  or- 
ganic is  nothing  but  a  physical  and  mechanical  arrangement. 
Life  is  there.  This  is  my  fixed  idea ;  I  love  to  lose  myself  in 
it."  (67.) 

Some  other  of  the  fundamental  notions  of  The  Future  of 
Science  are  also  first  developed  here.  The  doctrine  that 
science  should  be  useful  stirs  Renan's  wrath.  "It  is  the 
useful  that  I  abhor.  Blasphemy  to  submit  science  to  any- 
thing useful.  .  .  .  How  I  detest  those  commonplace  philoso- 
phers who  assign  a  value  to  living,  to  activity,  to  commerce, 
that  eighteenth  century,  for  example,  and  its  offshoots.  Ah ! 
I  should  prefer  my  monks  and  my  ascetics,  if  they  fully  real- 
ized their  type."  (52.)  "Every  science  has  its  full  value 
only  for  the  philosopher  who  does  not  make  it  a  specialty, 
but  who  absorbs  its  results.  .  .  .  The  truth  is  that  there  is 
a  vital  science,  which  is  the  whole  of  man,  and  that  this 
science  needs  to  be  based  upon  all  the  individual  sciences, 

46 


YOUTHFUL  NOTEBOOKS 

which  are  its  members  and  are  besides  goodly  in  them- 
selves." (101.)  As  all  sciences  melt  into  one,  so  all  classi- 
fications only  serve  to  show  the  unity  of  nature.  There  are 
no  geometrical  divisions.  "The  world  is  not  divided  into 
pigeonholes  with  fixed  boundary  lines;  it  is  a  picture  in 
which  all  the  colors  vary  in  a  hundred  ways  and  by  insen- 
sible gradations."  (13.)  Every  separate  species  merges  into 
its  neighbor,  whether  it  be  the  case  of  languages,  races,  ani- 
mals (13,  109),  or  men  of  genius  (6),  or  parts  of  speech 
(147). 

It  is  interesting  to  observe  this  unfolding  of  Renan  's  ideas. 
In  all  sacred  books  he  discovers  primitive  syncretism.  (19.) 
In  history  he  sees,  not  alternating  epochs  of  stability  and 
transition,  but  a  continuous  progress,  nothing  but  transition, 
and  though  humanity  lingers  long  on  certain  ideas  as  though 
to  hatch  them,  it  is  a  bird  of  paradise  that  hatches  while 
flying.  (36.)  Even  such  little  comparisons  are  preserved 
in  The  Future  of  Science.  For  Renan  was  seeking  not  only 
to  stabilize  his  ideas,  but  to  clothe  them  in  adequate  ex- 
pression. "I  have  not  succeeded  in  defining  my  thought," 
he  remarks.  "It  has  not  the  necessary  sharpness;  I  see  it 
sketched  like  the  point  of  a  dagger  under  a  veil,  a  statue 
under  a  veil."  (79.)  At  another  time  he  has  even  less 
success:  "This  old  criticism  takes  hold  of  a  work  like — 
an  image  that  I  cannot  find."  (105.)  All  this  effort  is  lead- 
ing toward  his  characteristic  style.  *  *  There  is  a  certain  point 
of  thought  impossible  to  render  in  words,  at  least  in  the 
ordinary  kind  of  speech.  .  .  .  When  I  reach  these  various 
tones  or  points  of  thought,  I  get  irritated.  Then  I  seek  the 
vaguest  words,  tone,  point,  scheme,  form,  to  render  my 
thought;  for  these  words,  ha\'ing  the  least  definite  meaning, 
are  the  least  inexact,  and  are  the  least  calculated  to  oppose 
to  my  meaning  a  clear  and  definite  contrary  meaning."  (122.) 

The  animating  spirit  is  the  spirit  of  youth,  an  enthusiasm 
checked  by  sudden  turns  of  reflection. 

47 


ERNEST  RENAN 

!AJi!  why  have  I  only  one  life!  Why  can  I  not  emhrace  every- 
thing! When  I  think  that  for  certain  forms  I  must  say:  Never, 
Never!  (117.)  At  this  age  how  joyously  and  fully  life  is  grasped; 
irretrievably,  indeed,  and  without  reflection.  ...  I  am  all  fire,  hope, 
life  and  future.  Life  lies  there  before  me  and  excites  my  appetite: 
a  bird  of  prey  enticed  by  the  quarry.  There  is  an  emptiness  that 
calls  for  repletion  and  seeks  to  swallow,  to  draw  things  to  itself. 
I  do  not  speak  of  the  material.  Ideal,  God.  Then  when  one  is 
filled,  I  imagine  one  turns  away.  (171.)  Dreams!  but  how 
many  great  things  have  not  dreams  led  to,  without  speaking  of 
the  sweet  moments  they  have  produced.  The  ideal  carries  you 
away,  you  do  not  attain  it,  but  you  mount  to  the  heights.  If  my 
dreams  did  nothing  but  make  me  forget  M.  Crouzet  and  his  brats, 
that  would  still  be  much.     (74.) 

Once  he  is  seized  with  horror  lest  he  may  be  on  the  point 
of  losing  his  lofty  ideal  in  his  effort  to  obtain  a  position,  a 
pigeonhole  in  the  world,  but  the  horror  itself  reassures  him, 
the  life  he  contemplates  appearing  "hideous  and  dry  as  a 
dusty  courtyard  in  summertime."  (14.)  On  the  other  hand, 
he  lectures  himself  on  his  idealistic  exclusiveness :  *  *  Ernest, 
you  fall  perhaps  into  the  fault  of  those  who,  being  partial, 
deny  that  which  they  do  not  possess.  Assuredly  none  is 
broader  than  I  within  the  ideal;  but  what  is  outside  I  de- 
clare to  be  vanity.  I  almost  scruple  to  use  the  word.  Per- 
haps nothing  is  vanity."  (123.)  Might  not  a  perspicacious 
applied  psychology  almost  predict  some  of  the  works  that 
forty  years  would  ripen? 

The  contents  of  the  copy  book  labeled  '  *  Myself,  * '  also  writ- 
ten in  March,  1846,  ^'  is  in  consonance  with  the  title,  for  a 
large  proportion  of  it  is  given  to  self -analysis.  It  furnishes 
admirable  illustrations  of  the  intimate  interrelation  in 
Kenan's  intellectual  production  of  experience,  emotion  and 
reflection.  **I  have,"  he  remarks,  **an  excessively  reflective 
nature,  and  as  soon  as  I  have  spontaneously  experienced  a 
sentiment  or  movement,  I  turn  back  upon  myself  to  study 

"See  Note  50. 

48 


YOUTHFUL  NOTEBOOKS 

and  debate  it."  (8.)     A  good  example  of  this  procedure  is 
furnished  by  his  remarks  on  affectation : 

I  suffer  horribly  as  soon  as  I  find  in  myself  anything  affected, 
any  tone  assumed,  above  all  when  it  relates  to  the  good  or  the 
sublime.  Oh!  then  everything  looks  suspicious  to  me,  and  as 
I  had  a  thousand  times  rather  die  than  renounce  what  is  grand, 
I  find  myself  in  a  cruel  alteraative.  It  is  remarkable  that  I  fear 
affectation  in  regard  to  the  beautiful  more  than  I  ever  do  in 
regard  to  the  good.  I  never  reproach  myself  for  deliberately 
moralizing  as  I  should  for  deliberately  and  factitiously  poetizing. 
As  to  truth,  the  thing  would  have  no  sense.  I  must  decidedly  take 
my  stand  on  this  matter,  and  willy-nilly  go  forward  to  the  beauti- 
ful. "What  if  I  have  really  been  affected  for  a  moment?  And 
indeed,  what  harm  is  there  in  it,  understood  in  the  sense  I  assign 
to  it  ?  This  affectation  is  nothing  but  the  considered  and  deliberate 
will  to  aim  at  something  great  and  beautiful.  The  vulgar  mock 
it,  as  they  mock  so  many  other  things,  and  here  again  the  laughers 
have  the  incredible  advantage  of  being  believed  on  their  word. 
Frightful  tyranny  exercised  by  these  people!  They  are  all  men 
without  ideals,  common,  without  elevation,  infected  with  positive 
ideas  and  without  poetry,  and  it  is  to  such  that  the  scepter  is 
awarded  to  judge  if  such  or  such  a  thing  is  pure  gold  or  not. 
Let  them  mock  the  naive  efforts  a  soul  makes  to  rise.  They  are 
not  capable  of  such  an  effort,  and  their  laugh  proves  nothing. 
Arm  thyself  against  this  laugh,  for  thou  canst  be  sure  they  will 
laugh  much  at  thee.  (23.)  ^*  In  spite  of  myself  I  am  always  on 
my  guard  for  fear  of  exposing  myself  on  some  side  to  ridicule.  .  .  . 
But  what  arms  me  against  this  is  that  I  never  feel  myself  less 
exposed  to  ridicule  than  when  I  mock  myself  or  take  my  cen- 
sorious critical  tone.  Being  exposed  to  ridicule  or  not  has  then 
nothing  to  do  with  intrinsic  value.     (60.) 

Thus  he  arrives  at  a  whole  theory  of  mockery  and  the  fear 
of  being  duped  (17,  18),  but  the  starting  point  is  the  in- 
ward experience,  not  the  abstract  proposition. 

His  antipathy  to  the  practically  useful — "foolishness  and 
occupation  for  idiots"  (38) — is  also  a  matter  of  emotion  and 
experience,  reenforced  by  reflection.     That  science,  for  ex- 

"  See  also  85. 

49 


ERNEST  RENAN 

ample,  should  be  regarded  as  material  for  instruction  springs 
from  this  wretched  view  of  utility.  ' '  Misery !  science  is  an 
end  in  itself.  It  may  indeed  lend  itself  to  the  college,  and 
dwarf  itself  to  enter  those  doors,  but  this  is  a  condescension 
on  its  part."  (77.)  Here  science  seems  to  be  largely,  and 
perhaps  unconsciously,  identified  with  Renan  himself.  "It 
seems  to  me  that  teaching  is  death  to  science,  and  whoever 
gives  himself  fully  to  teaching  kills  himself  for  science.  It 
is  a  poor  caput  mortuum. — I  mock  teaching,  though  appar- 
ently proceeding  in  that  direction.  For  me  it  is  only  a 
breadwinner  for  a  few  years."  (27  bis.)  When  writing  this 
passage,  he  had  in  view  a  particular  institution,  the  college 
attended  by  his  own  pupils.  "I  never  saw  anything  more 
silly,  more  pedantic,  of  a  more  exasperating  insipidity  than 
those  professors  at  the  College  Henri  IV.  .  .  .  O  God!  how 
I  suffer!  I  pray  thee  to  express  my  thought  with  the  fire 
and  the  bile  that  gnaw  my  soul  in  conceiving  it,  while  un- 
able to  fling  it  forth!"  (27.)  Some  of  his  university  teach- 
ers, too,  are  unsatisfactory  because  their  aim  is  merely  to 
form  good  professors;  but  he  is  not  one  of  these  products. 
He  will  indeed  be  a  professor  for  his  bread,  but  he  is  willing 
to  take  oath  before  a  notary  as  to  his  contempt.  It  is  not 
textbooks  that  he  meditates,  but  works  dealing  with  religions, 
man,  morals,  the  direction  and  aim  of  life ;  and  although  he 
sees  that  he  can  make  no  worldly  fortune,  it  does  not  matter, 
he  will  hold  fast  and  the  world  will  come  to  him.  (93.) 

This  confidence  in  his  powers,  very  frequent  in  these 
notes,  is  perhaps  nothing  extraordinary  in  a  young  man, 
but  it  is  always  of  interest  when  justified  by  the  sequel. 
"What  consoles  me  when  I  grow  desperate  of  success,  seeing 
how  greatly  I  differ  from  the  intellectual  world  around  me, 
is  that  the  world  will  not  always  remain  the  same.  How 
many  times  has  it  not  changed  in  the  past  forty  years!  It 
is  certain  that  it  will  change  quite  as  much  in  the  forty  years 
to  come.    And  perhaps  I  shall  be  one  of  those  to  bring  about 

50 


YOUTHFUL  NOTEBOOKS 

a  revolution.  For  this  reason,  do  not  change  thyself  by  sys- 
tem, let  thyself  go  and  let  the  age  come  to  thee,  without 
going  toward  it."  (84.) 

Nothing  could  be  more  characteristic  than  his  love  for 
Jesus  and  the  influence  of  this  feeling  on  his  moods.  The 
mixture  of  emotionalism  and  reason  is  very  curious. 

I  have  just  confessed  and  I  am  well  content,  though  a  little 
troubled.  It  seems  that  I  am  entirely  out  of  my  sphere.  I  have 
spoken  very  clearly  to  Jesus,  in  the  host;  for  I  cannot  fancy, 
after  having  believed  so  long,  that  it  is  only  ordinary  bread.  In 
this  there  is  a  very  remarkable  psychological  fact :  literally  I 
cannot  fancy  it.  But  I  have  preferred  to  speak  to  the  Jesus  of 
the  Gospel.  O  this  time  he  has  penetrated  me,  and  I  have 
seen  in  what  an  astonishing  position  I  stand  in  relation  to  him. 
He  is  the  only  man  before  whom  I  bow.  I  have  told  him  this  and 
I  think  it  must  have  pleased  him.  The  truth  is,  for  nothing  in 
the  world  would  I  pay  homage  to  the  superiority  of  any  man, 
whoever  it  might  be,  present  or  past,  scarcely  even  of  the  future. 
But  for  him,  0  I  do  so  heartily.  I  have  said  to  him:  Thou 
art  my  master  in  moral  ideas,  which  is  the  capital  matter;  thou 
art  a  God  in  comparison  with  me.  I  have  indeed  an  idea  in  addi- 
tion to  thine,  that  thou  eouldst  not  have  and  oughtest  not  to  have 
had ;  it  is  science,  which  also  has  its  rights ;  for  after  all,  while  the 
child  is  lovable  and  sublime,  science  ought  nevertheless  to  be  main- 
tained. But  Heavens!  how  thou  surpassest  me  in  the  great  vital 
science!  0  if  I  had  only  known  thee!  how  I  should  have  been 
thy  disciple!  Love  me,  I  pray,  yes,  bend  me,  if  thou  wilt,  I  will 
do  thy  will  to  please  thee.  Dost  thou  wish  me  to  make  myself 
a  little  child,  to  renounce  even  science?  I  am  content,  but  I  cannot 
believe  that  thou  demandest  it  of  me.  How  I  long  to  know  if 
thou  lovest  me!  for,  after  all,  thou  canst  not  be  dead.  What 
art  thou?  So  much  the  better  if  thou  art  God;  but  then  cause  me 
to  know  it.  Ah!  if  I  could  see  thee,  0  God!  I  would  willingly 
consent  to  pass  the  rest  of  my  life  without  consolation.  Make 
me  believe  concerning  thee  all  that  I  must  believe  to  please  thee. 
Do  what  will  make  thee  love  me:  tell  me  now,  wilt  thou  be  my 
friend?  My  God,  why  canst  thou  not  answer?  Thou  wilt  tell  me 
at  least  what  I  must  do  to  be  thy  friend.  For  thou  art  not  dis- 
dainful, repulsing  those  who  would  share  thy  friendship.  Thou 
findest  me  perhaps  stiff  and  too  much  tainted  with  science.    But 

51 


ERNEST  RENAN 

what  can  I  do?  That  is  what  we  are  like  now,  and  I  swear  that 
I  love  thee  for  the  sake  of  loving  thee.  I  have  even  simplicity 
and  purity  in  my  spirit,  science  does  not  dry  me  up  or  deflower 
me;  yes,  truly,  I  believe  our  hearts  are  made  for  one  another. 
Thou  knowest  well  that  when  I  hear  the  stupid  men  of  our  time, 
who  know  thee  not,  speak  ill  of  thee,  or  speak  not  of  thee  at  all, 
which  is  more  ridiculous  and  more  superficial,  I  shrug  my  shoul- 
ders. I  have  never  blasphemed  thee;  appear  to  me  once  in  my 
life  and  I  will  be  content.  At  my  death,  at  least.  I  hope  that 
in  the  other  life  we  shall  be  friends  and  reunited  sensibly.  Thou 
wilt  then  pardon  me  all,  is  it  not  so?  But  I  must  believe  that 
henceforth  thou  lovest  me.     (39.) 

At  another  time  he  has  a  dream  in  which  he  defends 
Jesus  at  his  trial  (89),  a  dream  that  for  a  whole  day  held 
him  rapt,  and  also  formed  the  basis  for  an  argument  in  favor 
of  immortality,  ^^  since  he  is  sure  that  Jesus  could  not  have 
been  a  mere  aggregation  of  molecules  that  have  since  been 
dispersed^®  (89  bis). 

This  vision  is  closely  associated  with  remembrances  and 
images  of  Treguier,  for  Renan's  feelings  are  so  bound  to- 
gether that  they  do  not  come  singly,  but  in  groups.  Home 
and  family  belong  in  the  group  with  the  religion  of  his  early 
days. 

My  heart  twinges  at  the  recollections  of  my  dear  Brittany,  above 
all  in  springtime.  I  dream  of  the  little  back  roads,  the  banks  of 
the  Guindy,  the  road  of  Saint  Yves,  the  chapel  of  the  Five  Wounds, 
the  three  pines  on  the  hill,  the  poplar  close  by  the  spring,  where 
mother  snatched  from  me  a  book  of  philosophy."    Even  the  least 

^See  also  2,  The  Essai  psychologique  sur  Jesiis-Christ,  though 
scholastic  in  tone  and  method,  expresses  much  the  same  feeling.  Writ- 
ten during  the  ordination  retreat.  May,  1845,  it  calls  upon  Jesus  to 
reveal  what  he  is  by  yes  or  no.  "I  have  been  to  the  chapel,"  says 
Eenan,  ' '  to  pray  to  Jesus,  and  He  said  nothing  to  me. ' '  Eeviie  de 
Paris,  15  September,  1920,  p.  260. 

"See  also  letters  to  Liart  and  Cognat,  Souvenirs,  and  to  Henrietta, 
April    11,   1845. 

"See  p.  318  and  also  Souvenirs  d'enfance  et  de  jeunesse,  p.  313. 
The  same  incident  appears  in  Fragments  intimes,  Avenir,  and  else- 
where. 

52 


YOUTHFUL  NOTEBOOKS 

attractive  places  are  those  that  please  me  best.  The  dry  and  arid 
spots  are  colored  by  r^ret.  And  to  say  that  it  is  forever,  to  say 
that  the  cruel  opinion  exists  there  which  will  keep  me  forever 
exiled.  And  yet  I  shall  never  be  attached  to  any  other  region. 
Come,  my  soul,  let  us  be  attached  to  heaven.  Think  that  it  is  for 
virtue  and  duty  that  thou  hast  sacrificed  thy  Brittany  and  thy 
mother.  0  God,  was  that  what  thou  shouldst  demand  of  me? 
"Wilt  thou  not  give  it  back?  Jesus,  thou  oughtest  to  love  me.    (72.) 

If  he  had  possessed  the  mechanism  of  verse-making,  he 
would  have  written  a  little  poem  advising  the  swallows  that 
nest  near  his  mother's  window  not  to  fly  to  Paris  to  lodge 
under  the  eaves  or  in  the  chimneys  of  the  Tuileries  (81),  but 
verse-making  is  not  his  talent.  "I  have  a  certain  reflective 
and  psychological  turn  that  always  comes  back  on  me  and 
prevents  me  from  being  largely  or  easily  poetical.  It  is 
only  the  lofty,  firm  and  grand  poetry  of  man  in  which  I  am 
in  my  ready  element.  Elsewhere  my  habitual  (acquired) 
turn  of  mind  is  opposed  to  the  wholly  external  ways  of 
poetry."  (82.) 

He  was  born  romantic,  requiring  soul,  something  border- 
ing on  the  abyss  (15),  yet  for  him  poetry  needs  a  mingling 
of  science  and  criticism  (13)  ;  the  literature  of  pleasure  is  an 
abomination  (22)  ;  the  Chatterton  apes  are  utterly  ridicu- 
lous (79).  Once  he  is  tempted  to  devote  himself  to  natural 
history  (73) ;  at  another  time  he  conducts  a  metaphysical 
analysis  so  rigidly  that  it  leads  to  the  annihilation  of  thought 
(48) ;  there  appear  to  him  to  be  two  ways  of  judging — abso- 
lutely and  eclectically — each  of  which  he  adopts  in  turn 
(103)  ;  eclecticism  in  a  large  sense  is  the  formula  of  the  good 
method,  no  absolute  negation,  no  positive  opinion  (59) ;  all 
are  right  and  all  are  wrong  (112) ;  yet  eclecticism  dulls  the 
point  of  every  proposition  and  gives  no  result — better  the 
round,  firm  manner  that  warms  up  and  takes  fire,  yielding 
much  error  but  also  much  truth  (28) — in  such  entries  we 
find  Renan  sounding  for  firm  ground,  and  finding  the  bottom 

53 


ERNEST  RENAN 

all  in  flux,  he  has  abandoned  every  rigid  formula.  Ortho- 
doxy, a  tortoise  shell  that  cramps,  had  been  at  the  same  time 
a  protection ;  nevertheless,  at  whatever  cost  of  pain,  it  must 
be  removed  by  criticism,  so  as  to  give  free  air  to  the  living 
tissues  it  had  crushed.  (37.) 

This  freer  spirit  it  is  not  easy  to  harness  in  words.  He 
feels  that  his  thought  molts  and  cannot  speak.  (85.)  He 
has  undertaken  to  express  what  is  really  inexpressible,  the 
inward  image  that  accompanies  every  thought  and  sentiment. 
"For  what  makes  the  ease  or  difficulty  of  any  style  is  not 
a  subjective  quality  of  the  writer,  but  the  objective  quality 
of  what  he  tries  to  express ;  the  attempt  to  express  what  in 
the  soul  is  mysterious,  confused,  obscure,  that  is  what  brings 
difficulty  and  obscurity."  (89.)  And  this  is  not  all;  for  the 
finest  part  of  himself,  flaming  into  sentiments  that  surpass  all 
expression,  is  not  contained  in  these  pages ;  he  does  not  even 
try  to  write  such  things.  (109.) 

In  spite  of  his  antipathy  to  the  practical,  he  consents  to 
consider  politics,  since  it  acts  so  strongly  on  things  of  the 
mind  and  enters  so  largely  into  the  progress  of  the  world, 
(38.)  It  is  not  yet,  however,  a  topic  of  much  importance  to 
him.  His  views,  he  realizes,  have  been  influenced  by  the 
profound  European  peace  during  the  period  of  his  education 
(58)  :  liberty,  therefore,  seems  natural  enough,  but  unfavor- 
able to  original  production  (64)  :  he  feels  that  absolute 
power  as  a  kind  of  ownership  is  horrible  (44)  :  on  the  other 
hand,  constitutional  ideas  seem  the  application  of  the  scien- 
tific inductive  method  in  politics — the  king  as  representative 
of  God  being  the  a  priori  view,  the  king  as  the  first  function- 
ary of  the  state  being  the  experimental  view  (91) :  social- 
ism, he  thinks,  has  revolutionary  possibilities,  since  hollow 
and  superficial  men  have  heretofore  succeeded  in  starting 
great  movements  in  the  world  (63).  All  the  while,  the  con- 
tinent was  seething  with  discontent.  Assuredly  Renan  was 
little  sensible  of  the  imminent  eruption. 

54 


YOUTHFUL  NOTEBOOKS 


IV 


The  remaining  Notebooks,  published  as  Nouveaux  Cahiers, 
represent  very  much  the  same  type  of  experiences  and  re- 
flections, excepting  that  the  struggle  is  over,  and  we  have 
here  simply  jottings  to  serve  as  a  sort  of  commonplace  book. 
The  change  of  tone  is  manifested  by  the  formula  that  begins 
so  many  entries:  "It  is  a  singular  fact  that,"  or  its  equiv- 
alent. "In  this  notebook,"  says  Renan  in  "My  Life"  (VI), 
"I  put  only  my  most  superficial  results.  My  deeper  and 
more  solid,  often  more  brilliant  acquisitions,  which  have 
reached  the  state  of  haiitual,  I  do  not  utter  except  when 
occasion  demands,"  (24.)  Yet  one  is  constantly  coming 
upon  entries  that  reappear  in  the  pages  of  The  Future  of 
Science.  The  idea  of  a  philosophical  treatise  seems  already 
to  have  occurred  to  him:  "On  the  collection  of  matters 
that  occupy  philosophy — substance,  God,  soul,  body — I  have 
a  series  of  ideas  that  I  shall  try  to  unite  in  a  whole ;  for  they 
truly  make  an  organic  whole  and  include  everything.  But  so 
far  as  concerns  the  old  scholastic  concepts,  I  feel  that  I  have 
gone  beyond  them  once  and  for  all."  (2.)  Particularly  to 
be  noted  as  reappearing  in  The  Future  of  Science,  are  cer- 
tain thoughts  about  humanity:  It  is  not  synchronous  in  all 
the  parts  of  its  development  (3),  it  marches  like  an  army 
with  great  men  as  scouts  (7),  each  nation  is  one  of  its 
faculties  (10),  it  develops  like  the  individual,  the  psychology 
of  its  childhood  being  different  from  that  of  its  maturity 
(30),  it  is  attached  to  a  stake  and  with  each  turn  it  unwinds 
the  chain  and  enlarges  its  circle  (51). 

In  "Thoughts"  (VII)  the  subject  of  government  becomes 
more  prominent  than  in  the  previous  books :  His  intellectual, 
moral  and  political  system  is  well  woven  together,  but  he 
finds  the  function  of  government  to  be  purely  that  of  re- 
pressing disorder  (1) ;  men  perform  disagreeable  tasks  be- 

55 


ERNEST  RENAN 

cause  they  work  in  a  mass  (19) ;  an  opposition  party,  having 
gained  its  point,  becomes  conservative,  and  therefore  the 
day  after  a  revolution,  a  new  revolution  is  beginning  (21, 
marked  vert/  goad)  ;  rulers  have  never  governed  on  moral 
principles  (30)  ;  an  oppressive  government  that  crushes  and 
smothers  progress  is  monstrous  (31) ;  so  is  one  that  regards 
the  people  as  its  possession  (62)  ;  logic  is  of  doubtful  appli- 
cation in  political  matters  (92)  ;  the  sovereignty  of  the  peo- 
ple is  in  politics  analogous  to  the  experimental  method  in 
the  sciences  (112).  These  ideas,  together  with  others  of  a 
literary  and  philosophical  character,  are  fixed  acquisitions 
to  be  used  in  his  book. 

In  "The  Cistern  of  Joseph"  (VIII)  he  concludes  from 
the  political  outlook  that  there  will  be  a  terrible  overturning 
and  also  a  religious  regeneration.  (27.)  Such  predictions 
are,  however,  not  to  be  considered  unusual.  On  the  whole, 
in  spite  of  its  motto,  "I  have  found  heart  and  fire  for  sev- 
eral lives,"  this  collection  seems  to  have  no  special  feature. 
Yet  for  their  interest  in  connection  with  Kenan's  feelings 
about  his  work,  two  passages  may  be  quoted : 

(a)  Adieu  individual  glory!  What  a  pity  to  see  poor  indi- 
viduals struggling  in  this  great  chaos!  Impossible  to  be  heard, 
at  least  for  any  length  of  time.  The  whole  begins  to  exist;  adieu 
poor  little  members.  It  is  sad,  but  who  of  us  will  in  truth  speak 
to  the  future?     (42.) 

(b)  There  is  an  original  way  of  drawing  inspiration  from  the 
books  of  one's  literary  predecessors.  For  after  all,  if  the  in- 
spiration drawn  from  the  beauty  of  nature  does  not  destroy  origi- 
nality, why  should  not  intellectual  beauty  also  be  an  occasioning 
cause  in  the  creation  of  the  beautiful?  But  they  must  be  only 
occasioning  causes  and  not  themes  to  copy  or  imitate  or  extract. 
You  are  lighted  by  contact  with  them ;  but  do  not  steal  their  flames, 
a  torch  lit  by  a  torch.     (113,) 

Assuredly  it  was  in  this  spirit  that  Renan  later  treated 
German  biblical  scholarship. 

56 


YOUTHFUL  NOTEBOOKS 

Least  important  of  all  the  "Notebooks"  is  the  ** Present 
for  a  Child"  (IX).  One  entry,  however,  presents  a  favorite 
view,  which  has  not  been  previously  given  in  these  selections : 

Liberty  might  reproduce  among  us  what  religious  enthusiasm 
has  accomplished  in  past  ages.  Crusade  of  liberty.  It  will  be 
seen,  I  am  sure.  These  ideas  are  now  the  only  powerful  ones. 
If  five  hundred  thousand  heads  exalted  to  this  pitch  should  rise, 
imagine  what  would  happen.  It  would  be  a  religious  move- 
ment.    (30.) 


The  bits  of  self-analysis  that  Renan  jotted  down  from 
time  to  time  are  of  considerable  interest:  for  example,  his 
discomfort  in  a  crowd  that  manifests  signs  of  unrestraint 
{Nouveaux  Cahiers,  p.  133,  n.  76),  or  his  instinctive  ten- 
dency toward  conformity  with  what  people  think  of  him 
{ibid.,  p.  182,  n.  13;  p.  189,  n.  24).  In  what  he  says  about 
his  associations  of  ideas,  we  are  introduced  to  a  matter  of 
prime  importance.  "A  result  is  not  completely  acquired  by 
me  until  I  have  gone  over  the  matter  twice.  It  needs  a  sort 
of  knot,  a  first  end  that  escapes,  and  awaits  a  second  to  be 
tied  to  it."  (Ibid.,  p.  108,  n.  40.)  He  never  heard  a  music 
lesson  at  Crouzet's  without  renewing  the  sadness  he  felt  on 
first  entering  that  house  {ibid.,  p.  108,  n.  42)  ;  a  bell  on  a 
cart  in  the  street  calls  up  a  picture  of  a  Breton  vehicle 
{ibid.,  p.  123,  n.  60)  ;  because  there  was  an  odor  of  ether  in 
Pinauld's  classroom  at  Issy,  he  smells  ether  when  he  opens 
the  book  on  physics  he  had  used  there  {ibid.,  p.  193,  n.  30) ; 
the  scent  of  new  wood  from  a  box  calls  up  his  vacations  in 
Brittany  {ibid.,  p.  196,  n.  35).  These  particular  cases  are 
perhaps  not  extraordinary,  but  they  are  worth  noting,  for 
in  studying  Renan 's  writings,  we  find  that  one  of  the  marked 
characteristics  of  his  mind  was  the  strength  and  permanence 
of  its  associations. 

At  first  the  attractions  of  his  lost  faith  were  not  entirely 

57 


fillNEST  RENAN 

overcome.  "I  admire  adoration,  but  I  can  scarcely  rise  to 
it.  .  .  .  Here  I  am,  erect  in  the  temple,  listening  to  sounds 
from  every  side.  Ah!  when  shall  I  fall  on  my  knees?  It 
will  not  be  when  I  wish  it,  but  when  I  do  it  spontaneously. ' ' 
(Cahiers,  p.  203,  n,  144.)  "How  I  wish  I  were  a  poor  little 
nun,  wholly  simple  and  pure,  praying,  loving,  not  thinking. 
But  I  barb  my  life  with  a  bitter  and  hard  science  or  a  ter- 
rible philosophy.  How  happy  is  Beatrix ;  to-day,  holy  Thurs- 
day, she  is  there  in  the  church,  devoutly  kneeling  by  a  pillar 
with  her  book.  And  I  in  the  midst  of  my  Hebrew  accents, 
Gesenius,  Buxtorf,  Leibnitz.  .  .  .  My  beautiful,  pure  and 
poetic  life  is  all  there,  farewell  forever!  ...  I  shall  never 
forget  the  day  when  I  sat  there  near  the  Chapel  of  the  Five 
Wounds,  at  the  foot  of  a  tree  and  read  De  Bonald :  mother, 
with  her  maternal  instinct,  took  the  book  from  my  hands. 
The  tone  frightened  her  and  she  saw  from  the  way  I  took  it 
that  it  was  turning  my  head.  'Read  nice  things,'  she  said." 
(Ibid.,  p.  353,  n.  40.)  Renan  even  began  to  write  a 
confession  of  faith  for  an  opening  lecture  in  some  course  he 
expected  to  give,  but  he  does  not  get  very  far  in  his  curious 
task,  and  terminates  the  fragment  with  the  words,  "The 
rest  can  wait."  {Ihid.,  p.  353,  n.  40.)  He  realized  that  he 
had  passed  through  the  faith  which  is  based  upon  last 
chances  and  the  safest  way,  and  that  he  had  ended  in  un- 
belief. (NmirVeaux  Cahiers,  p.  126,  n.  67.)  Yet  even  this  con- 
viction is  disturbed  by  the  old  associations.  "My  poor 
friend,  your  idea  is  now  to  come  back  into  Christianity 
bravely,  strong-armed,  lance  in  hand:  perhaps  you  will  re- 
turn like  a  little  girl."  (Ibid.,  p.  126,  n.  67.)  But  there  is 
also  the  other  side :  *  *  Doubt  is  so  excellent  that  I  have  just 
prayed  God  never  to  deliver  me  from  it :  for  I  should  be  less 
excellent,  though  happier."  (Ibid.,  p.  232,  n.  96.)  Doubt 
thus  turned  him  to  belief,  and  belief  turned  him  to  doubt. 

Such  revulsion  from  a  dominant  idea,  which  was  one  of 
the  principal  features  of  Renan 's  intellectual  and  moral 

58 


YOUTHFUL  NOTEBOOKS 

character  throughout  life,  is  a  marked  trait  in  these  Note- 
books. "Where  shall  I  find  a  man  that  pleases  me?  These 
superficial  men  attract  and  then  repel  me.  It  is  like  elec- 
tricity when  the  alder  wood  ball  is  saturated.  Even  my 
good  Germans  have  the  same  effect  on  me.  Well,  I  shall  be 
alone,  but  I  shall  be  what  I  am."  {Cahiers,  p.  238,  n,  51.) 
Even  within  himself  he  finds  these  repulsions.  "When  I 
have  remarked  anything  affected  in  myself,  I  react  vigor- 
ously against  it  by  a  calm,  cold,  veracious,  inward  tone,  to 
such  an  extent  that  what  is  really  not  affected,  but  might 
merely  seem  so,  nauseates  me. "  (/&mZ.,  p.  260,  n.  76.)  For  a 
moment,  pleasantry  directed  against  erudition  pleases  him, 
but  he  immediately  afterwards  takes  sides  with  the  scholars. 
(Ibid.,  p.  281,  n.  111.)  He  admires  the  strict  logic  of  Hobbes, 
yet  revolts  against  it.  (Ibid.,  p.  294,  n.  131.)  This  sort  of 
revulsion  he  notes  particularly  in  the  case  of  personalities, 
both  in  life  and  in  books ;  at  first  enthusiasm,  love,  the  forma- 
tion in  his  mind  of  an  ideal  type;  then  disappointment, 
faults  and  weaknesses  becoming  apparent,  experience  spoil- 
ing the  too  favorable  picture.  (Nouvemix  Cahiers,  p.  51,  n. 
50.)  Much  of  Kenan's  surface  inconsistency  is  explained  by 
this  trait. 

Throughout  these  Notebooks  there  is  frequent  recurrence 
of  agitation,  even  of  irritability.  Ennui  he  never  feels — it  is 
only  for  children  and  empty  minds  (Cahiers,  p.  199,  n.  12) 
— ^though  he  often  suffers  (ibid.,  p.  410,  n.  95).  It  even 
pains  him  terribly  when  a  professor  expresses  an  idea  that 
he  had  himself  developed  and  that  seemed  his  own  property. 
(Ibid.,  p.  118,  n.  2.)  On  every  sort  of  occasion  impatient 
and  angry  exclamations  burst  forth.  "I  have  just  under- 
gone an  unspeakably  painful  attack  of  impatience.  I  know 
nothing  that  makes  me  suffer  more."  (Ibid.,  p.  227,  n.  45.) 
Stupid  or  insincere  ideas  excite  him  quite  as  much  as  people 
or  occurrences.  His  rage  at  the  Czar  is  almost  comical.  * '  I 
would  cuff  him,  spit  in  his  face,  have  him  scoffed  at  and 

59 


ERNEST  RENAN 

judged,  condemned  to  death  by  the  populace,  drowned  amidst 
hootings."  (Nouvmux  Cahiers,  p.  97,  n.  27.)  We  cannot 
understand  Renan  aright  if  we  exclude  this  savagery.  How- 
ever much  it  might  be  tamed,  it  always  seethed  potentially 
under  the  layers  of  calm  and  courtesy  added  by  training, 
reflection  and  years. 

VI 

Both  his  impatience  and  his  proclivity  to  revulsion  are 
manifested  in  his  feelings  toward  his  professors  at  the  Sor- 
bonne  and  the  College  de  France.  For  all,  he  has  moments 
of  admiration,  all  stimulate  his  thought,  but  only  one,  Oza- 
nam,  is  uniformly  the  subject  of  his  approval,  excepting 
only  his  uncompromising  orthodoxy.  Renan  never  issues 
from  Ozanam's  lectures  without  feeling  "stronger,  loftier, 
more  decided  on  great  things,  more  courageous  and  joyous 
for  the  conquest  of  life  and  of  the  future. ' '  ( Cahiers,  p.  256, 
n.  71.)  Villemain  generally  pleases  him  for  his  elevated 
views  and  delicate  criticism,  but  is  sometimes  felt  to  be  too 
pretentiously  literary.  The  philosophers,  particularly  Gar- 
nier,  he  finds  superficial  in  their  treatment  of  religious  ques- 
tions. Ozanam,  though  dealing  with  literature,  seems  more 
philosophical,  and  is  certainly  more  to  Renan 's  taste.  "I 
can  imagine  what  that  imbecile  Gamier  would  say,  if  any 
one  spoke  to  him  of  Jesus  Christ."  (Ihid.,  p.  304,  n.  145.) 
Yet  almost  always  Garnier  is  treated  with  entire  respect. 
The  erudite  Le  Clerc  and  Gerusez  arouse  admiration  for  their 
vast  learning,  but  something  approaching  contempt  for 
their  narrowness  and  pedantry.  Gerusez  is  found  insipid; 
Le  Clerc  is  a  rhetorician,  one  who  knows  simply  for  the  sake 
of  knowing  and  of  shining  by  his  scholarship,  exasperatingly 
exclusive  in  his  interests,  miserable  and  petty.  But  Renan 's 
chief  aversion  is  Saint-Marc  Girardin.  For  him  he  has 
hardly  a  good  word.  **He  laughs,  he  pretends  to  be  clever; 
ah !  the  foolish  progeny  of  men  of  the  equivocal,  who  never 

60 


YOUTHFUL  NOTEBOOKS 

take  life  whole,  because  they  are  neither  strong  enough  nor 
true  enough."  {Ibid.,  p.  171,  n.  58.)  "That  imbecile  Saint- 
Marc  Girardin,  the  most  nauseating  creature  I  know.  .  .  . 
I  rage  against  them  all.  Germany!  Germany!  Goethe, 
Herder,  Kant."  ^»    (Ibid.,  p.  310,  n.  151.) 

Germany  was  to  Renan's  imagination  the  antithesis,  not 
only  of  the  narrow  theology  of  Saint  Sulpice,  but  also  and 
more  particularly  of  the  fashionable  frivolity  of  the  Pa- 
risian salon  and  the  superficiality  of  French  men  of  let- 
ters. It  seemed  superior  in  philosophy,  moral  ideas  and 
scholarship.  He  speaks  of  "a  secret  instinct,  a  love  with- 
out acquaintance  that  bears  me  toward  Germany  to  see 
if  I  may  there  find  my  form."  {Ibid.,  p.  253,  n.  66.)  Out- 
side of  oriental  scholarship,  indeed,  his  acquaintance  with 
German  literature  does  not  appear  to  have  been  extensive. 
"The  important  thing  is  not  here  and  there  to  glean  par- 
ticular ideas,  but  to  seize  the  spirit  that  implicitly  includes 
all.  I  have  read  but  a  few  lines  of  the  Germans,  and  I 
know  their  theories  as  though  I  had  read  twenty  volumes, 
for  I  put  myself  at  their  point  of  view.  ...  A  spirit,  when 
made  for  you,  is  divined  in  a  word,  and  the  whole  fol- 
lows. For  the  Germans,  whom  I  knew  almost  entirely  from 
Mme.  de  Stael,  I  inferred  all  their  theories.  Any  one  who 
had  heard  me  talk  would  have  thought  I  had  read  fifty 
volumes  of  German  criticism."^®  {Nouveaux  Cahiers,  p.  211, 
n.  59.)  At  any  rate,  he  had  read  Faust  and  Werther;  Kant 
and  other  philosophers  apparently  came  to  him  through 
French  commentators;  what  is  more  surprising  is  that  all 
his  references  to  Herder — ^'my  king  of  thovght,  reigning 

"Gamier  and  Le  Clere  viere  later  among  Eenan's  most  helpful 
friends  (see  Chapter  V),  but  Saint-Marc  Girardin  was  never  sTmpa- 
thetic. 

"•One   of   Renan'a  primary  notions   is  found   in   Mme.    de   Stael: 

"Where  one  rises  to  the  infinite,  a  thousand  explanations  may  be 

equally   true,   although   different,   since   questions   without  limit  have 

thousands  of  faces,  one  of  which  is  sufficient  to  fill  the  duration  of  » 

lifetime."    De  I'Allemagne,  Pt.  Ill,  Ch.  V. 

61 


ERNEST  RENAN 

over  all,  judging  all,  and  judged  of  none"  (Cahiers,  p,  243, 
n.  30) — are  to  the  translation  of  the  Poetry  of  the  Heirews 
by  Mme,  de  Carlowitz. 

Among  the  French  writers  who  largely  occupied  his 
thoughts,  the  most  important  is  perhaps  Cousin,  particularly 
in  his  course  of  1818,  which  is  very  frequently  cited.^°  Poetry 
is  represented  by  Lamartine,  Victor  Hugo  being  scarcely 
mentioned.  It  is  Jocelyn  that  looks  like  a  new  variety  of 
masterpiece.  The  chief  historians  are  Guizot  and  Michelet. 
In  fact,  Renan  could  not  have  had  the  leisure  for  any  ex- 
tensive commerce  with  contemporary  literature.  Especially 
worthy  of  remark  are  the  references  to  Sainte-Beuve,  whose 
Portraits  litteraires  seems  to  have  been  read  with  active 
attention.2^  Sometimes  Renan  is  attracted,  but  he  is  just 
as  often  repelled.  The  critic,  who  in  one  matter  presents 
a  perfect  bit  of  feeling,  a  delicate  appreciation  or  a  luminous 
reflection,  becomes  in  another  a  type  of  that  witty  frivolity 
which  makes  one's  flesh  creep  (Cahiers,  p.  158),  one  of  our 
fine  critic-skeptics,  with  their  mocking  tone,  affectation  of 
superiority  and   pretension  of  a  thousand   delicacies  and 

**E€nan  knew  Cousin's  course  of  1818  under  the  shades  of  Issy: 
"The  impression  on  me  was  such  that  it  could  not  be  deeper;  I  knew 
his  winged  phrases  by  heart;  I  dreamed  over  them.  I  have  a  con- 
sciousness that  several  bits  of  the  framework  of  my  mind  are  thence 
derived,  and  this  is  why,  without  ever  having  been  of  Cousin's 
school,  I  have  always  had  for  him  the  most  respectful  and  deferential 
sentiments.  He  has  been  not  one  of  the  fathers,  but  one  of  the  ex- 
citers of  my  thought."  Feuilles  detacliees,  p.  299.  A  typical  note  is 
the  following:  "M.  Cousin  has  one  clearly  defined  characteristic, 
which  completely  represents  him.  It  is  that  he  grows  enthusiastic  over 
other  great  men  and  rises  to  their  ideas.  This  explains  in  the  first 
place  all  his  philosophic  travels,  and  it  gives  besides  the  key  to  his 
idea  of  eclecticism.  Indeed,  when  one  has  thus  successively  admired 
all  great  men,  one  tends  to  find  truth  in  them  all,  to  embrace  all,  as 
one  loves  all;  and  is  not  this  pure  eclecticism?  Moreover,  he  has 
philosophic  erudition,  and  the  learned  man  must  seek  to  give  value  to 
all  the  objects  of  his  studies.  Every  philosopher  thus  acquires  some 
value.  I  myself  have  the  same  tendency."  Cahiers,  p.  264,  n.  80.  In 
the  brief  Essai  psychologique  sitr  JSsiis-Christ  Cousin  is  quoted  half  a 
dozen  times. 

"  An  early  edition  is  found  in  the  catalogue  of  Eenan  'a  library. 

62 


YOUTHFUL  NOTEBOOKS 

reserves    (ibid.,   p.    319).     This   irritation    even    leads   to 
the  bracketing  of  Sainte-Beuve  with  Saint-Marc  Girardin. 

There  are  pretentious  men  of  letters,  who  always  appear  to 
have  some  reservation  in  their  thought.  You  can  never  wholly 
accept  what  they  say:  nothing  makes  me  more  impatient.  This 
petty  worldly  tone  of  the  man  who  affects  the  clever  is  in  the 
highest  degree  unphilosophical  and  without  truth.  M.  Saint-Mare 
Girardin,  M.  Sainte-Beuve,  for  example.  Always  the  attitude  of 
only  half  giving  out  their  soul,  and  from  time  to  time  the  half 
avowal,  which  seems  to  say  that  their  bottom  is  mud,  pleasure, 
vanity,  money,  that  the  rest  is  mere  shell,  exhibited  for  the  sake 
of  imposing  on  the  silly.  (Nouveaux  Cahiers,  pp.  291,  292,  Ap- 
pendix.) 

This  dissatisfaction  was  the  result  of  dwelling  exclusively, 
one  may  say  too  exclusively,  with  the  ideal :  yet  the  tenacity 
with  which  Renan  clung  to  his  plan  for  an  unworldly  life, 
when  seconded  by  his  great  ability,  achieved  the  success 
that  ultimately  crowned  his  career.  He  was  often  lone- 
some in  that  Paris  which  was  like  a  forest  of  walking  trees, 
and  wretched  enough;  "shoes  with  holes,  every  penny  to 
be  reckoned,  frightful  external  life  in  that  house  with 
brats  and  an  ogre."  (Cahiers,  p.  226,  n.  44.)  Neverthe- 
less, he  kept  his  aim  fixed  on  the  higher  scholarship.  The 
career  offered  by  teaching  in  a  lycee  would  be  death  to 
science;  it  could  at  best  become  a  mere  temporary  bread- 
winner. "Ozanam,  Fauriel,  Damiron,  etc.,  these  are  my 
types,  to  this  I  proceed."  {Ibid.,  p.  341,  n.  27  bis.) 

Awaiting  whatever  rewards  the  future  might  provide, 
he  would  be  "pure,  moral,  and  a  good  analyst."  {Ibid.,  p. 
298,  n.  132.)  "Learned  man,  yes;  college  professor,  pish!" 
(Nouveaux  Cahiers,  p.  115,  n.  49.)  "I  see  myself  professor 
of  oriental  literatures  in  the  Faculty  of  Letters,  seated  at 
the  table  surrounded  by  a  semicircle  of  benches,  discussing, 
criticizing,  admiring."  (Cahiers,  p.  256,  n.  71.)  However 
much  he  might  be  attracted  to  other  topics — and,  as  a  mat- 

63 


ERNEST  RENAN 

ter  of  fact,  he  was  attracted  to  every  subject  he  essayed 
(Cahiers,  p.  285,  n.  117;  Nouveaux  CaMers,  p.  140,  n.  85) — 
the  aberration  was  but  momentary,  a  mere  velleity,  and  he 
always  really  held  firmly  to  his  work  in  linguistics  and 
philosophy,  with  his  eye  on  the  College  de  France.  "We 
had  confidence  in  our  energy  and  power  of  work,"  writes 
"Berthelot  concerning  this  period.  Both  young  men  regarded 
the  promotion  of  science  as  more  important  to  them  than 
a  worldly  career  and,  with  a  determination  to  preserve  their 
personal  independence,  they  refused  to  enter  any  of  the 
great  schools,  though  these  provided  the  ordinary  line  of 
advancement.  They  chose  the  wiser  part :  at  the  fixed  hour 
of  destiny,  place  and  fame  came  to  both. 


CHAPTER  III 

PRIZES  AND  degrees;   REVOLUTION   OP  '48;   "lA  LIBERT^  DB  PENSEa** 

The  amount  of  work  accomplished  by  Renan  between  1845  and 
1849  was  stupendous.  He  pursued  his  studies  at  the  University, 
the  School  of  Oriental  Languages  and  the  College  de  France;  he 
passed  his  examinations  for  the  licence  and  for  agrege,  he  pre- 
pared the  ground  for  his  doctor's  dissertations,  he  carried  off  two 
prizes  for  erudite  linguistic  memoirs,  he  contributed  extensively 
to  periodicals,  both  lay  and  learned,  and  he  wrote  The  Future  of 
Science. 

I 

No  other  scholar  made  such  an  impression  on  Renan  as 
Burnouf,^  under  whom  he  studied  Sanscrit  and  Indo-Euro- 
pean grammar.  In  the  solidity  of  his  learning,  in  his  de- 
votion to  thankless  tasks,  in  his  care  for  the  minutest  de- 
tails, all  animated  by  a  broad  and  profound  philosophy,  this 
master  seemed  to  the  ardent  pupil  the  ideal  of  a  man  of 
science  in  the  field  of  philology.  Under  his  inspiration, 
Renan  immediately  proceeded  to  apply  the  method  of  Bopp 
to  his  own  specialty,  the  Semitic  tongues.  The  result  was 
a  first  sketch  of  his  Histoire  generale  et  systeme  compare 
des  langues  sendtiques,  which  he  presented  in  1847  to  the 
Institut  in  competition  for  the  Volney  Prize,  1,200  francs 
awarded  by  the  Academies  for  a  work  in  the  domain  of  com- 
parative philology.  This  prize  he  won,  and  his  brilliant 
success  opened  new  prospects. 

Meanwhile  he  had  undergone  the  difficult  examination  for 
the  licence.     The  whole  summer  of  1846  was  passed  in  dreary 

*See  Dedication  to  Avenir,  p.  4,  and  essay  on  Bumouf  ir  Qttes- 
tions  contemporaines. 

65 


ERNEST  RENAN 

isolation  and  under  pressure  of  the  unattractive  labor  of 
preparation  for  this  test.^  Master  of  Latin  that  he  was, 
Renan  found  it  irksome  to  distort  his  ideas  by  forcing  them 
into  the  strict  Tullianism  that  was  required.  "0  what  a 
heartbreaking  work,"  he  exclaims,  "to  strive  thus  to  dis- 
originalize  one's  thought!  You  devilish  grammarians,  how 
I  rage  against  you ! "  ^ 

While  the  stupidity  of  such  requirements  annoyed  him, 
his  loneliness  and  the  uncertainty  of  his  situation  often 
caused  actual  suffering.  "Yes,"  he  writes  in  his  notebook, 
"to  keep  him  from  going  mad,  a  thinker  needs  a  mother,  a 
sister,  a  friend,  a  modest  sort  of  life,  nice  and  simple  and 
with  few  worries. ' '  *  The  charm  of  such  family  life  he 
found  again  on  visiting  his  mother  in  Brittany  during  the 
summer  of  1847,  though  he  now  felt  himself  out  of  tune 
with  the  narrow  mediocrity  of  the  social  environment  at 
Saint-Malo.^  The  sister  was  still  in  distant  Poland,  and 
though  the  modest  competence  was  not  yet  in  sight,  he  still 
in  almost  every  letter  begs  Henriette  to  come  to  Paris.  He 
is  sure,  even  if  he  cannot  secure  an  official  position,  that, 
without  touching  their  reserve  fund,  they  can  get  along 
on  what  he  can  pick  up  from  substitute  teaching,  private 
coaching  lessons,  and  articles  in  periodicals.  A  five-fran-c 
piece  went  a  long  way  with  the  Renans.®  The  needy  young 
student  had  never  exhausted,  in  fact  had  hardly  touched, 
the  1,500  francs  put  at  his  disposal  by  Henriette  when  he 
left  the  Seminary.  He  regarded  the  sum  as  not  for  use, 
but  for  assuring  tranquillity  of  mind.  Indeed,  Renan,  poor 
as  he  was,  never  underwent  such  privations,  as,  for  ex- 
ample, his  compatriot,  Jules  Simon,  who  shivered  in  his 


•Letter  to  Cognat,  September  5,  1846,  Souvenirs,  Appendix. 

*  Nouveaiuc  Cahiers,  p.  15,  n.  5,  also  p.  132,  n.  74. 

*Ibid.,  p.  9,  n.  2.    See  also  letter  to  Cognat,  September  5. 

» Letter  to  Berthelot,  August  28,  1847. 

*See  letters  October  13  and  November  6,  1843. 

6Q 


PKIZES  AND  DEGREES 

fireless  garret  while  lecturing  in  place  of  Cousin  for  1,000 
francs  a  year.  He  was,  however,  lonely.  His  sister  and 
Berthelot  are  the  only  ones  to  whom  he  can  impart  his  con- 
fidences. With  all  others  he  assents,  through  long  habit, 
to  everything  they  say,  reserv^ing  his  true  thought  for  his 
writings,^  and  even  in  his  writings  avoiding  practical  appli- 
cations and  keeping  to  theory. 

A  character  sketch  in  the  manner  of  La  Bruyere,  which 
he  inserted,  without  much  relevancy,  in  The  Future  of  Sci- 
ence, is  plainly  intended  to  represent  his  conception  of  him- 
self at  this  period  (for  "Hermann,"  we  should  of  course,  sub- 
stitute "Ernest"): 

Hermann  has  lived  only  with  himself,  his  family  and  a  few 
friends.  With  these  he  is  frank,  true,  full  of  spirit;  he  touches 
the  sky.  In  society  he  displays  insufferable  stupidity  and  is  con- 
demned to  silence  by  the  entire  course  of  conversation,  which  does 
not  allow  him  to  get  in  a  word.  If  he  makes  up  his  mind  to  try, 
the  strange  sound  of  his  voice  caiLses  everybody  to  look  up;  it  is 
incongruous.  He  cannot  deal  in  small  change;  if  he  wants  to 
repay,  he  takes  from  his  pocket  gold,  not  penni^.  At  the  Academy 
or  the  Porch,  he  would  have  been  thoroughly  at  home;  he  would 
have  been  one  of  the  favorite  disciples,  he  would  have  figured 
in  a  dialogue  of  Plato  as  Lysis  or  Charmides.  If  he  had  seen 
Dorothea,  beautiful,  brave  and  proud,  by  the  fountain,  he  would 
have  dared  to  say  to  her:  Give  me  to  drink.  If,  like  Dante,  he 
had  seen  Beatrice  coming  out  of  a  church  in  Florence  with  her 
eyes  on  the  ground,  perhaps  a  ray  of  light  would  have  been  flung 
across  his  life,  and  perhaps  the  daughter  of  Falco  Portinari  would 
have  smiled  at  his  troubled  state.  Well,  before  a  young  lady,  he 
feels  and  causes  only  embarrassment. — Your  Hermann,  you  say, 
is  a  country  lout,  let  him  go  back  to  his  village, — Not  at  all.  In 
the  village  he  will  find  coarseness,  ignorance,  lack  of  appreciation 
of  everything  delicate  and  beautiful.  Now,  Hermann  is  polished 
and  cultivated,  more  refined  than  even  the  men  of  the  salon,  but 
not  with  an  artificial  and  factitious  refinement.  There  is  in  him 
a  world  of  sentiment  that  neither  coarse  stupidity  nor  frivolous 
skepticism  could  understand.    He  is  a  true  and  sincere  man,  taking 

'To  Henriette,  July  30,  1848. 

67 


ERNEST  RENAN 

his  nature  seriously  and  adoring  the  inspirations  of  Gk)d  in  those 
of  his  own  heart.' 

In  all  his  views,  Kenan's  thought  is  personal,  generalized 
from  his  own  experience,  *'A  thinker  needs  a  mother,  a 
sister,  a  friend";  the  dictum  results  from  his  own  longing 
for  his  mother  and  his  sister.  The  friend  he  had  near  him, 
there  in  Paris,  working  with  the  same  lofty  purpose,  albeit 
in  a  dijfferent  field. 

Berthelot,  having  left  the  Crouzet  house  on  the  com- 
pletion of  his  studies  at  the  lycee,  was  now  living  with  his 
father  by  the  Tour  Saint-Jacques  on  the  other  side  of  the 
Seine.  The  intimacy  of  personal  friendship  was,  however, 
in  no  way  relaxed. 

When  he  came  to  see  me  evenings  at  the  rue  de  l*Abb6-de-l':fipee 
[says  Renan]  we  talked  for  hours;  then  I  would  accompany  him 
to  the  Tour  Saint- Jacques ;  but,  as  usually  the  question  was  far 
from  being  exhausted  when  we  reached  his  door,  he  would  return 
with  me  to  Saint-Jacques-du-Haut-Pas.  Then  I  would  go  back 
with  him,  and  this  movement  to  and  fro  would  be  continued 
several  times.  Social  and  philosophical  questions  must  have  been 
difficult  indeed  if  we  did  not  solve  them  in  our  desperate  effort. 
The  crisis  of  1848  stirred  us  deeply.  No  more  than  ourselves 
could  this  terrible  year  solve  the  problems  that  it  set.  But  it 
showed  the  decrepitude  of  a  multitude  of  things  considered  solid; 
for  young  and  active  minds,  it  was  like  the  dissipation  of  a  curtain 
of  clouds  that  hid  the  horizon.* 

The  elder  Berthelot,  a  physician  of  high  standing  and 
of  multifarious  beneficent  activities,  was  a  liberal  in  poli- 
tics and  a  Galilean  of  the  old  school  in  religion.  The  re- 
ligion of  the  two  youths  came  to  be  "the  worship  of  truth, 
and  by  truth  is  meant  science,"^"  an  idealism  based  on  a 

'Avenir,  pp.  467,  468. 

*  Souvenirs,  pp.  335,  336.  The  church  of  Saint-Jacques-du-Haut-Pas 
was  at  the  corner  of  the  street  on  which  Renan  lived.  The  distance  is 
more  than  a  mile. 

"Speech  at  banquet  in  honor  of  Berthelot,  November,  1885:  Dig- 
cours  et  conferences,  p.  232. 

68 


PKIZES  AND  DEGREES 

realization  of  the  reign  of  law,  admitting  no  supernatural 
intervention  and  no  plenary  revelation.  Their  political  ideas 
involved  the  acceptance  of  the  Revolution — *  *  our  holy  Revo- 
lution," Renan  calls  it" — as  the  starting  point  of  a  new 
era  of  emancipation,  an  era  which  was  to  be  continued  by 
the  application  of  scientific  methods  to  government  and 
social  reforms.  Some  notion  of  their  discussions  may  be 
obtained  from  three  letters  that  Renan  wrote  to  Berthelot 
from  Saint-]\talo  in  1847  and  1849,  and  the  conclusions 
they  reached  are  embodied  in  The  Future  of  Science}^ 

This  book,  indeed,  is  the  acknowledged  product  of  both, 
though  only  one  held  the  pen.  It  was  in  companionship 
that  they  began  to  think.  "We  owe  too  much  to  one  an- 
other," writes  Renan,  "ever  to  be  separated,  at  least  in 
heart  and  thought ;  the  more  so,  since  the  results  we  have 
reciprocally  lent  one  another  are  so  intertwined  that  no 
power  could  ever  analyze  this  network  and  discern  the 
property  of  each."^^  And  thirty  years  later,  in  the  dedi- 
cation to  Berthelot  of  his  Philosophical  Dialogues,  Renan 
speaks  of  ideas  that  they  had  talked  over  more  than  a 
thousand  times,  till  it  had  become  as  impossible  to  distin- 
guish what  belongs  to  one  or  to  the  other  as  to  divide  the 
members  of  a  child  between  father  and  mother.  Berthelot, 
too,  says  of  The  Future  of  Science,  "This  volume  represents 
the  first  unripe  product  of  the  effervescence  of  our  young 
heads ;  a  mixture  of  current  views  of  the  philosophers  and 
scholars  of  the  epoch  with  our  personal  ideas,  which  though 
later  developed,  were  at  that  time  merely  confused 
sketches."" 

These    confused   sketches,    which   were   later   developed, 

"Letter  to  Berthelot,  August  27,  1847. 

"  The  ideas  in  these  letters  and  even  many  phrases  are  identical 
with  passages  in  the  book.  The  same  is  true  of  letters  written  to 
Henriette  in   1848;    Bevue  de  Paris,   April    15,   1896. 

"Letter  to   Berthelot,  August   28,   1847. 

"Introduction  to  the  Eenan-Berthelot  Correspondence. 

69 


ERNEST  RENAN 

represent,  indeed,  one  side  of  Renan's  intellectual  activity, 
the  side  that  he  soon  began,  and  never  ceased,  to  exhibit 
to  the  wide  public  of  general  readers;  but  under  the  more 
obvious  effervescence,  there  was  a  deep  and  persistent  cur- 
rent of  arduous  specialized  labor.  For  1847,  and  again  for 
1848,  for  some  reason  postponing  the  award,  the  Academy 
of  Inscriptions  and  Belles-Lettres  proposed  for  its  annual 
prize  of  2,000  francs  the  subject,  "L'Histoire  de  Vehide  de 
la  langue  grccque  dans  I'occident  de  I'Europe,  depuis  la 
fin  du  V^  Hecle  jtisqu'd  celle  du  XIV^,"  ^^  Renan  presented 
his  essay  in  May  and  on  September  1  his  work  was  crowned 
in  a  seance  at  which  his  favorite  professor,  Burnouf,  pre- 
sided. Simultaneously,  and  throughout  the  summer,  he  was 
preparing  for  the  competitive  examination  for  agrege  in 
philosophy,  a  test  which  was  held  in  September  and  in 
which  he  ranked  first,  delivering  a  lecture  on  Providence, 
which  caused  some  stir.^®  This  success  secured  him  the 
regular  stipend  of  500  francs  a  year  and  made  him  eligible 
to  a  professorship  in  a  lycee. 

Such  an  appointment  he  received  in  the  little  country 
town  of  Vendome,  but  he  begged  for  a  leave  of  absence 
and  enlisted  in  his  favor  the  influence  of  the  great  Cousin. 
"Excuse  the  liberty  I  take  in  writing,"  he  says,  "when  I 
have  not  the  honor  of  being  known  to  you.  It  is  my  duty 
at  the  opening  of  my  career,  to  offer  my  homage  to  him 
to  whom  I  owe  my  calling  in  philosophy,  and  whose  writings 
have  had  such  a  profound  influence  on  my  thought."  What 
he  wants  is  Cousin's  influence  with  the  ministry  of  public 
instruction  to  secure  a  leave  of  absence  in  order  that  he  may 
finish  his  theses  in  Paris,  because  the  work  would  be  im- 


"  AcadSmie  des  Inscriptions,  Memoires,  vol.  xvi,  pp,  153,  154. 

"Caro,  the  prize  pupil  of  the  ficole  Normale,  stood  second.  The 
fourth  was  also  a  Breton.  See  article  by  Quellien,  Eevue  encyclo- 
pedique,  1892.  In  this  article  the  dates  of  Eenan's  residence  at  Crou- 
zet'e  are  given  from  November,  1845,  to  March,  1849. 

70 


PRICES  AND  DEGREES 

possible  in  the  provinces.  "I  hope  to  show  in  these  two 
works, ' '  he  adds,  ' '  how  I  proceed  in  making  philology  tribu- 
tary to  philosophy.""  The  situation  appealed  to  Cousin 
and  the  request  appears  to  have  been  granted;  at  any  rate, 
Eenan  did  not  go  to  Vendome.  He  supplied  for  some  weeks 
the  place  of  a  friend,  Bersot,  in  the  Lycee  of  Versailles, 
where  he  lectured  on  aesthetics,  changing  the  announced  sub- 
ject of  the  course  in  order  to  avoid  religious  controversy. 
For  odd  lessons  from  time  to  time  he  had  already  taken 
the  place  of  Amedee  Jacques  and  other  Parisian  professors.^® 
His  studies  were  now  especially  directed  to  his  disserta- 
tions for  the  doctorate.  As  early  as  1846,  he  had  already 
made  researches  toward  a  history  of  incredulity  within 
Christianity,^®  the  starting  point  of  his  work  on  Averroes, 
and  in  1848  he  speaks  of  a  study  he  had  undertaken  on  the 
history  of  Hellenism  among  the  orientals,  the  subject  of  his 
Latin  thesis,  a  dull  and  dry  task  by  means  of  which  he 
hopes  to  throw  some  light  on  the  history  of  the  human 
spirit.^"  During  the  summer  of  1847,  he  found  in  the  li- 
braries of  Brittany,  especially  at  Avranches,  most  valuable 
manuscripts  and  incunabula,  including  Aristotle  with  the 
commentaires  of  Averroes,  and  here  he  composed  several 
chapters  of  his  book.^^  Both  Le  Clerc,  dean  of  the  Faculty 
of  Letters  at  the  University,  and  Cousin,  all-powerful  mem- 
ber of  the  Royal  Council  of  Public  Instruction,  were  inter- 
ested in  this  investigation  and  eager  to  aid  the  young  author. 


"September  25,  1848,  Barth61emy  Saint-Hilaire,  Victor  Cousin,  vol. 
iii,  p.  456.  As  the  letter  was  sent  from  Eue  de  1 'Abb6-de-l 'Ep§e, 
Renan  was  still  at  Crouzet's. 

"See  Letters  to  Berthelot,  April  10  and  17,  1848. 

"See  letters  to  Cognat,  September  5  and  11,  1846,  Souvenirs,  Ap- 
pendix. In  the  letter  to  Cousin,  just  quoted,  he  speaks  of  having 
already  given  a  year  to  the  task. 

"  Avenir,  p.   185. 

"'Letter  to  Berthelot,  August  28,  1847,  and  Feuilles  dStachees,  pp. 
101,  102.  "The  library  of  Mont-Saint-Michel,  now  at  Avranches." 
Melanges  religieux  et  historiques,  p.  267. 

71 


ERNEST  RENAN 


II 


Kenan's  mind  was  agitated,  but  his  studies  were  not  in- 
terrupted, by  the  revolution  of  1848.  On  February  25,  he 
crossed  the  barricades  with  Burnouf  to  go  to  the  College 
de  France,  where  they  found  the  lecture  room  occupied  by 
guards,  who  looked  upon  them  with  suspicion.^^  As  all 
the  college  rooms  continued  to  be  used  for  clubs  and  sol- 
diers, Burnouf  held  his  classes  thereafter  at  his  home.^' 
During  the  disturbances  in  June,  Renan  visited  the  barri- 
cades and  saw  the  fighting  in  the  streets.  He  was  even  for 
twenty-four  hours  in  the  hands  of  the  insurgents.  One 
evening,  on  going  out  to  mail  a  letter,  he  was  driven  back 
by  a  fusillade.  He  also  saw  the  horrors  enacted  in  the 
Luxembourg  gardens,  where  prisoners  were  shot  in  squads; 
and  his  sympathies  went  out  to  the  poor  wretches.  "I  am 
always  for  those  who  are  massacred, ' '  he  writes,  * '  even  when 
they  are  at  fault.  "^^ 

Both  heart  and  mind  had  broadened  since  1839,  when 
on  the  occasion  of  the  revolt  of  Blanqui  and  Barbes,  the 
smug  little  seminarist  had  written  to  his  mother: 

You  have  doubtless  heard  of  the  troubles  that  have  agitated 
Paris.  Do  not  be  disquieted  about  me;  for  I  assure  you  that 
they  do  not  disturb  us.  A  truly  remarkable  fact  is  that  we  were 
all  infinitely  gayer  that  day  than  usual ;  we  were  doing  composition 
Monday,  when  the  riot  had  not  been  entirely  quelled,  and  our 
excellent  professor  urged  us  to  work  well,  saying  that  in  these 
times  of  rioting  we  seemed  to  touch  the  earth  only  with  the  soles 
of  the  feet,  and  indeed  it  is  certain  that  the  mind  is  much  freer 
than  usual.  Nevertheless,  I  feel  horror  on  account  of  these  troubles, 
for  one  shivers  to  think  that  each  cannon  shot  you   hear  has 

"Dedication  of  Avenir. 

*  Letter  to  Henriette,  March  21,  1848.     Bevue  de  Paris,  April  15, 
1896. 
**To  Henriette,  July  16,  1848. 

72 


REVOLUTION  OF  '48 

brought  death  to  many  of  our  brothers  who  perhaps  were  not 
prepared  for  it  (May  30,  1839). 

This  boyish  effusion  represents,  not  only  immaturity,  but 
medievalism  of  spirit.  When  Renan  left  the  seminary  years 
later,  he  was  ' '  old  in  thought,  but  as  inexperienced,  as  igno- 
rant of  the  world  as  it  is  possible  to  be."^^  In  his  con- 
versations with  Berthelot,  he  acquired  more  humane  and 
larger  views.  In  politics,  he  at  first  sided  with  the  left,  being 
repelled  by  the  selfish  narrowness  of  the  bourgeoisie  and 
the  reactionary  stubbornness  of  the  clericals.  Now  socialism 
had  sprung,  as  it  were,  out  of  the  earth.  He  could  not  de- 
cidedly espouse  either  extreme.  "If  Cavaignae  and  Chan- 
garnier  had  been  as  critical  as  I,"  he  writes  a  few  months 
later,  ' '  they  would  not  have  saved  us  in  June ;  for  I  avow, 
that  since  February,  the  question  has  not  been  posed  clearly 
enough  to  my  eyes  for  me  to  hazard  myself  on  either  side. 
For,  I  said,  perhaps  my  brother  is  on  that  other  side;  per- 
haps I  shall  be  killed  by  one  who  wants  what  I  want. ' '  ^° 
The  musket,  moreover,  was  not  his  weapon ;  any  street  gamin 
could  beat  him  in  a  shooting  affray.  In  general,  he  favors 
the  party  of  order,  for  the  present  form  is  better  than  chaos, 
but  he  sjTnpathizes  with  the  sufferers  and  hates  the  bloody 
excesses  of  military  repression  exercised  upon  the  brutes 
that  society  itself  has  created.  He  perceives  that  the  move- 
ment is  premature,  that  socialism  is  a  pure  Utopia,  true  in 
principle  but  false  in  forms,  that  the  real  solution  is  to 
destroy  the  lower  class  by  giving  it  moral  education  and 
sufficient  material  well-being.  The  bourgeoisie,  he  notes,  is 
a  spirit,  not  a  caste,  an  obnoxious  spirit  because  impervious 
to  ideas.  The  ends  of  the  revolutionists,  on  the  other  hand, 
are  good,  but  the  means  are  not  yet  found ;  these  will  spring 
at  length  from  the  force  of  things.     "When  the  Triumph 

"Saeur  Henriette,  p.  29. 
" Avenir,  p.  447. 

73 


ERNEST  RENAN 

is  achieved,  it  will  be  that  of  neither  party,  but  of  humanity 
conquering  a  more  advanced  form.  France,  taking  a  new 
road,  stumbling  and  ridiculed  by  others,  who  themselves 
never  venture,  but  who  nevertheless  follow  her  lead,  France, 
he  hopes,  will  march  first  to  the  accomplishment  of  the 
divine  destinies  of  humanity,^^  "If  I  should  see  humanity 
in  tatters  and  France  dying,"  he  writes  (June  26),  "I  should 
still  say  that  the  destinies  of  humanity  are  divine  and  that 
France  will  march  in  the  van  for  their  accomplishment," 
And  again,  to  quiet  Henriette's  fears:  "I  am  not  a  so- 
cialist; I  am  convinced  that  none  of  the  theories  advanced 
as  capable  of  reforming  society  can  triumph  in  their  abso- 
lute form.  Every  new  idea  is  obliged  to  take  the  shape  of 
a  system,  a  partial,  narrow  shape,  which  never  comes  to 
practical  realization.  Only  when  it  has  broken  this  first 
shell,  and  become  a  social  dogma,  can  it  become  a  universally 
recognized  and  applied  truth"  (July  1). 

These  experiences  and  reflections  are  all  worked  into  the 
political  parts  of  The  Future  of  Science,  which  he  composed 
in  the  autumn  and  winter  of  1848-1849,  At  the  same  time, 
he  was  producing  many  articles,  both  learned  and  popular, 
which  were  published  in  various  periodicals.  To  Henriette 
he  writes  (July  1,  1848)  that  he  is  contributing  to  the 
Journal  officiel  de  Vinstruction  publique,^^  the  Revue  phi- 
losophiqiie,  the  Gazette  de  Vinstruction  putlique,  and  the 
Journal  Asiatique,  to  which  last  he  sends  only  anonymous 
notices.  In  this  list  one  is  surprised  at  first  to  find  that  he 
omits  the  most  important  of  all.  La  Liberte  de  Penser*,  but 
this  magazine  is  surely  meant  by  Revue  pMlosophique,  its 
subtitle. 

•"See  various  letters  to  Henriette,  Bevue  de  Paris,  April  15,  1896. 

"  Egger,  professor  of  Greek,  procured  the  publication  of  Eenan  's 
articles  in  this  journal.  His  most  important  contribution  was  * '  Eclair- 
cissements  tires  des  langues  semitiques  sur  quelques  points  de  la  pro- 
nonciation  grecque,"  reprinted  by  Franck  from  the  issues  of  July  7, 
18,  21  and  25,  1849.     Vicaire,  Manuel. 

74 


LA  LIBERTE  DE  PENSER 

Founded  by  Jules  Simon,  professor  of  philosophy  at  the 
Sorbonne,  and  by  Amedee  Jacques,  mattre  de  conferences  at 
the  jficole  Normale,  La  Liberie  de  Penser,  revue  philoso- 
phique  et  litteraire,  was  a  serious  periodical  of  about  one 
hundred  pages  a  number,  appearing  on  the  fifteenth  of  each 
month.  The  original  idea  had  been  to  make  the  revue  tech- 
nically philosophical,  but,  considering  that  philosophy  had 
a  political  and  social  task  to  perform,  it  was  decided  that 
there  should  be  included  articles  of  a  wider  interest,  com- 
prising religious  and  philosophical  polemics,  philosophy 
proper,  politics,  history,  literary  criticism  and  book  notices. 
While  of  no  single  philosophical  school,  the  writers  are  in 
general  accord  on  the  spiritualist  doctrines;  they  are,  above 
all,  defenders  of  the  absolute  rule  of  reason  and  hostile  to 
everything  opposed  to  liberty  of  thought.  Standing  for  no 
political  party,  though  sympathizing  with  the  left,  they 
have  neither  sought  nor  obtained  partisan  or  official  sup- 
port. They  are  men  of  letters,  who  will  treat  contemporary 
disputes,  as  well  as  all  other  questions,  from  a  philosophical 
standpoint,  asking  the  authorities  for  neither  money,  nor 
advice,  nor  support.^^  Among  the  contributors,  besides  the 
editors,  were  Charles  Baudelaire,  Ernest  Bersot,  Adolphe 
Gamier,  Carnot,  Eugene  Sue,  Quinet,  Michelet,  Henri  Mar- 
tin, Ratisbonne,  E.  Deschanel,  Isidore  Geoffrey-Saint-Hilaire, 
Paul  Janet  and  numerous  other  writers  of  note.  Even  Thiers 
contributed  one  article  in  denunciation  of  the  Minister  of 
Education,  Falloux,  leader  in  the  clerical  assault  upon  the 
University,  against  whom  the  review  was  particularly  bit- 
ter. These  young  men  were  animated  by  ardent  hopes,  soon 
to  be  cruelly  disappointed.  Writing  in  the  issue  of  May  15, 
1848,  Paul  Janet  says,  "Triumphant  democracy,  after  so 
many  disappointing  illusions,  cruel  downfalls,  useless  vic- 
tories, may  aspire  at  last,  not  to  the  reign  of  a  moment,  a 

"Program  in  the  first  number,  December  15,  1847,  signed  by  AmS* 
d§e  Jacques. 

75 


ERNEST  RENAN 

new  surprise,  a  new  terror  to  the  world,  but  to  a  definitive 
reign,  which  it  will  establish  without  obstacle,  by  its  modera- 
tion, its  magnanimity,  its  beneficence."  But  the  clouds 
were  not  long  in  gathering.  In  April,  1850,  Jules  Simon, 
who  had  written  for  each  issue  the  political  leading  article 
on  the  national  assembly,  withdrew  because  of  political  dis- 
agreement, and  Jacques-  proceeded  alone.  In  the  same  year, 
Jacques  himself  was  suspended  from  his  university  func- 
tions and  prohibited  from  all  teaching  on  account  of  an  ar- 
ticle on  the  religious  instruction  of  children.  The  Coup 
d'Etat  ended  the  publication,  sending  Jacques  into  perma- 
nent exile  in  South  America  and  suppressing  all  freedom 
of  speech. 

It  is  obvious  that  Renan  was  in  thorough  sympathy  with 
this  group  and  with  the  tendencies  of  their  revue,  particu- 
larly in  it^  attitude  toward  religion.  The  program  might 
almost  have  been  his  own.  To  this  magazine,  during  1848- 
1849,  he  contributed  seven  signed  articles,  which  may  be 
considered  his  debut  in  the  world  of  letters.  Five  of  these 
seemed  to  him  of  such  importance  that  he  afterwards  re- 
printed them  as  worthy  of  permanent  preservation  in  his 
works. 

An  essay,  "On  Clerical  Liberalism,"  the  first  article  of 
Renan  to  appear  in  La  Liberie  de  Penser,  was  published 
on  May  15,  1848,  in  the  sixth  issue  of  that  periodical.  Here 
he  maintains  that  such  liberalism  is  a  sham  and  that  it  is 
contrary  to  the  teachings  of  the  Church.  If  the  orthodox 
favor  the  Revolution  of  1848,  it  is  because  they  hate  the 
Revolution  of  1830,  and  see  in  the  new  movement  a  chance 
for  the  restoration  of  legitimacy.  The  Church  has  always 
taken  its  stand  against  the  sovereignty  of  the  people,  against 
the  participation  of  all  in  government.  Its  internal  move- 
ment has  been  away  from  a  primitive  democracy  to  the 
oligarchy  of  the  bishops  and  then  to  the  absolutism  of 
the  Pope.    As  for  tolerance,  the  Church  is,  from  the  necessi- 

76 


LA  LIBERTE  DE  PENSER 

ties  of  its  dogmatic  teachings,  an  oppressor  and  a  persecutor, 
demanding  liberty  only  for  itself  and,  when  possessed  of 
power,  crushing  all  freedom  of  thought.  Evidence  is  given 
from  the  Fathers,  the  councils,  and  from  modern  writers, 
as  well  as  from  the  facts  of  history.  Kenan's  attack  is  both 
learned  and  vigorous.  Those  who  read  the  reprinted  article 
in  Questions  contemporaines  do  not  by  any  means  get  the 
full  combative  energy  of  the  original.  All  the  facts  remain, 
all  the  thoughts,  all  the  quotations,  but  the  evidences  of 
feeling  have  been  carefully  removed.  Hardly  more  than  a 
third  of  the  sentences  stand  as  they  were  originally  printed. 
The  others  have  been  mostly  toned  down  by  omissions  and 
verbal  changes.  Almost  all  the  insulting  expressions,  par- 
ticularly those  implying  bad  faith,  have  been  suppressed. 
Often  the  vigor  is  lost,  but  many  alterations  are  improve- 
ments in  style,  tending  toward  definiteness  in  syntax  and 
lucidity  and  exactness  of  statement.  On  the  other  hand, 
absolute  assertions  are  frequently  qualified  and  all  the 
italics  used  for  emphasis  are  deleted,  A  few  of  the  changes, 
moreover,  bring  the  ideas  into  harmony  with  Kenan's  later 
attitude  toward  democracy.  The  revised  article  is  not  a 
genuine  example  of  the  verdeur  of  his  youth,  however  satis- 
factory it  may  be  as  a  testimony  to  the  excellence  of  his 
theology,^" 

All  the  other  essays  that  he  republished  from  La  Libert e 
de  Penser  underwent  a  like  revision.  Only  to  a  reader  who 
has  examined  these  pieces  in  their  original  form  can  the 
strenuous — one  is  almost  tempted  to  say,  the  bumptious — 
young  Kenan  be  really  known.  This  form  is  preserved,  in- 
deed, in  The  Future  of  Science,  a  guarantee  of  its  authen- 
ticity, and  a  multitude  of  phrases  in  these  essays  are  iden- 
tical with  phrases  in  that  book.  The  style  is  vigorous,  but 
crude;   positive  in   manner,   dogmatic  in  tone,   unsparing 

'*  Questions  contemporames.  Preface,  p.  xix. 

77 


ERNEST  RENAN 

in  unfavorable  implications  attached  to  opponents.  In  the 
rewriting,  all  this  harshness  and  exaggeration  are  moderated, 
as  in  the  case  of  the  essay  just  discussed :  irritating  expres- 
sions are  softened  or  omitted,  personalities  are  dropped, 
absolute  statements  are  qualified,  some  views  are  corrected, 
and  the  sentences  throughout  are  recast  for  exactness  and 
neatness  of  phrasing.  No  single  feature  is  more  striking 
than  the  substitution  of  substantives  for  pronouns  where 
there  might  be  the  slightest  danger  of  ambiguity.  In  gen- 
eral, juvenile  inexperience  has  been  replaced  by  mature 
skill.  A  close  study  of  these  alterations  would  indeed  fur- 
nish a  superb  lesson  in  the  art  of  composition. 

As  an  example  of  Renan's  adult  urbanity,  take  the  open- 
ing of  his  essay,  "Les  historiens  critiques  de  Jesus,"  as  it 
appears  in  his  Studies  in  Religious  History : 

"It  is  said  that  Fra  Angelico  of  Fiesole  always  knelt 
while  he  painted  a  head  of  the  Virgin  or  Christ:  it  would 
be  well  if  criticism  did  the  same,  not  braving  the  brightness 
of  certain  figures  before  whom  centuries  have  bowed,  until 
it  has  adored  them." 

The  same  essay  in  La  Liberie  de  Penser  opened  with 
these  harsh  words :  ' '  Criticism  knows  no  respect ;  it  judges 
gods  and  men.  For  it  there  is  neither  prestige  nor  mystery, 
it  breaks  all  charms,  tears  aside  all  veils." 

The  eight  years  intervening  between  the  two  versions 
had  changed,  not  only  Renan  's  style,  but  his  mental  attitude 
also,  and  it  seems  strange  that  in  the  Preface  to  his  Studies, 
he  should  speak  of  this  essay  as  though  it  still  retained  its 
original  character  (pp.  ii,  iii).  As  a  matter  of  fact,  not 
a  single  paragraph  remains  intact,  and  transpositions,  omis- 
sions and  additions  are  so  extensive  as  to  go  far  beyond 
what  can  normally  be  called  editing. 

The  essay  appeared  in  two  installments  in  La  Liberie  de 
Penser  for  March  15  and  April  15,  1849,  and  differed  from 
his  othef  articles  by  being  signed  E.  R.,  instead  of  Ernest 

78 


LA  LIBERIE  DE  PENSER 

Renan.  This  discussion  is  a  first  step  toward  the  Oriffins 
of  Christianity,  a  work  already  projected.  Its  purpose  is 
to  present  to  the  French  public  the  methods  and  results 
of  German  biblical  studies,  the  principal  theme  being  an 
appreciation  and  criticism  of  Strauss.  The  points  most  in- 
sisted upon  are  the  universal  reign  of  law,  the  consequent 
rejection  of  the  supernatural,  and  the  testing  of  sacred  texts 
by  the  same  methods  as  are  applied  to  other  writings.  While, 
on  the  one  hand,  the  views  of  orthodoxy  are  dismissed  as 
untenable,  on  the  other  hand,  the  aggressive  and  doctrinaire 
hostility  of  the  eighteenth  century  is  held  to  be  equally  far 
from  the  truth. 

"It  is,  once  for  all,  time,"  he  says,  "that  criticism  should 
get  used  to  taking  its  proper  subject  matter  wherever  this 
may  be  found ;  not  discriminating  between  the  works  of  the 
human  mind,  when  concerned  with  making  inductions  or  be- 
stowing admiration.  It  is  time  that  reason  should  cease 
to  criticize  religions  as  foreign  works,  set  up  against  it  by 
a  rival  power,  and  that  it  should  at  last  recognize  itself  in 
every  product  of  humanity,  without  distinction  or  contra- 
diction."" 

It  is  interesting  to  observe  that  Renan  already  distin- 
guishes between  the  creative  age  of  German  thought  and  the 
succeeding  period,  many  tendencies  of  which  he  did  not 
approve. 

The  great  fault  of  the  intellectual  development  of  Germany  is 
the  abuse  of  reflection,  that  is  to  say,  the  conscious  and  deliberate 
application  to  spontaneous  productions  of  laws  recognized  in  for- 
mer phases  of  thought.  .  .  .  This  weakness,  peculiar  to  the  Ger- 
man genius,  explains  the  singular  progress  of  ideas  in  that  country 
during  the  last  quarter  of  a  century,  and  the  ways  in  which,  after 
the  lofty  and  ideal  speculations  of  the  great  school,  Germany  is  now 
going  through  its  eighteenth  century,  hard,  crabbed,  negative, 
mocking,  dominated  by  the  instinct  of  the  finite  as  in  our  French 

"  Liberty  de  Penser,  vol.  iii,  p.  451.  The  passage  is  entirely  re- 
written in  i^tudeg,  p.  197. 

79 


ERNEST  RENAN 

epoch.  For  Germany,  Voltaire  has  come  after  Herder,  Kant, 
Fichte  and  Hegel.  The  writings  of  the  young  school  are  pre- 
cise, blunt,  realistic,  materialistic,  boldly  and  absolutely  denying 
the  beyond  (das  Jenseits),  that  is  to  say,  the  suprasensible,  the 
religious  in  all  its  forms,  declaring  that  it  is  an  abuse  to  make 
man  live  in  such  a  fantastic  world.  This  is  what  has  followed 
the  most  ideal  literary  development  presented  by  the  human  spirit, 
and  it  has  come,  not  by  logical  deduction  or  as  a  necessary  con- 
sequence, but  by  deliberate  contradiction  and  in  virtue  of  the  pre- 
meditated principle  that,  since  the  great  school  was  idealistic,  we 
intend  to  react  toward  realism.^^ 

Previous  to  this  contribution,  there  had  appeared  in  the 
issues  of  September  15  and  December  15,  "De  Torigine  du 
langage,"^^  the  purpose  of  the  essay  being  to  show  that 
language  was  not  formally  created  and  then  revealed  to 
man  in  complete  form  (the  theological  view),  and  that  it 
was  not  artificially  manufactured  according  to  a  plan  worked 
out  by  the  reflective  faculties  (the  eighteenth-century  view), 
but  that  it  resulted  according  to  permanent  psychological 
laws  from  the  spontaneous  exercise  of  the  human  powers 
amid  conditions  that  specially  stimulated  creative  linguistic 
activity.  The  methods  of  comparative  philology  are  ap- 
plied to  the  study  of  the  emhryogeny  of  the  human  mind, 
and  while  the  actual  steps  in  the  beginnings  of  speech  nat- 
urally remain  an  unexplored  mystery,  it  is  maintained, 
according  to  Renan's  general  theory  of  evolution,  that  the 
earliest  language,  like  all  products  of  primitive  psychology, 
is  characterized  by  syncretism,  a  confused  grasp  of  the  whole, 
and  that  its  exuberance,  variety  and  complexity  were  after- 
wards simplified  and  unified  by  analysis.  When  this  essay 
was  republished  as  a  volume  ten  years  later,  some  completely 

"  Ibid.,  pp.  438,  439,  Omitted  from  ttudes.  This  passage  refutes  the 
German  allegation  that  all  Kenan's  unfavorable  views  of  Germany 
arose  after  1870. 

^  There  was  a  reprint  selling  for  six  francs :  "  De  1  'origine  du  Ian- 
gage"  par  M.  Ernest  Eenan,  Extrait  de  la  Liberie  de  Fencer,  revue 
philosophique,  Paris,  au  bureau  de  la  Eevue,  1848,  in-8°  32pp.  Manuel 
de  I'amateur  de  livres  du  xixe  siecle,  par  G.  Vicaire,  Paris,  1907. 

80 


LA  LIBERTE  DE  PENSER 

new  topics  were  intt-oduced  (Chapters  X  and  XI),  there 
were  many  omissions  and  a  few  additions  in  detail,'*  and 
the  style  was  revised  throughout,  though  perhaps  not  so 
extensively  as  in  the  preceding  article. 

Another  essay,  the  only  one  of  his  signed  contributions 
that  he  did  not  think  fit  or  opportune  to  reprint,^'  was 
published  in  the  issue  of  November  15,  1848.  This  is  "Cos- 
mos de  M.  de  Humboldt, ' '  a  review  based  on  the  same  ideas 
of  science  and  philosophy  as  are  found  in  The  Future  of 
Science.  Lying  outside  Kenan's  field,  the  article  is  of  slight 
interest,  and  appears  to  have  been  written  with  effort.  It 
nevertheless  exhibits  considerable  learning  and  contains  some 
excellent  and  uncommon  remarks. 

Ill 

On  July  15,  1849,  was  published  "De  I'activite  intel- 
lectuelle  en  France  en  1849,"  with  an  editorial  footnote 
which  readst  "These  pages  are  extracted  from  a  book 
which  will  appear  in  a  few  weeks  with  the  title:  The  Fu- 
ture of  Science."  The  article  is  not,  however,  a  single  chap- 
ter, but  a  series  of  selections  taken  here  and  there  without 
regard  to  their  original  order  from  various  parts  of  the  book, 
and  carefully  rearranged  so  as  to  give  consecutive  sense.  In 
this  way  is  constructed  a  fervent  essay  in  favor  of  the  revo- 
lution and  against  conservative  and  self-interested  timidity. 
The  argument  is  entirely  philosophical,  the  application  of 
universal  principles  to  questions  of  the  day.    Chaos  is  crea- 

**  One  of  these  added  sentences  gives  a  new  turn  to  Eenan  's  view 
of  miracles:  "A  miracle,  far  from  being  a  proof  of  divine  power, 
would  be  rather  a  confession  of  weakness,  since  by  it  the  divinity 
would  be  correcting  his  first  plan,  thus  showing  its  insufficiency." 
"De  I'origine  du  langage,"  p.  239. 

•*Renan  republished  all  of  his  early  writings  that  he  considered 
worth  preserving.  (See  preface  to  Ncnivelles  ttudes,  1884.)  The 
specimens  collected  in  Melanges  religieux  et  historiques  convince  us 
that  his  judgment  was  correct. 

8X 


ERNEST  RENAN 

tive.  It  is  revolution,  agitation,  not  regulated  liberty,  not 
repose,  that  furthers  the  things  of  the  mind.  What  is 
needed  is  new  ideas.  Shameful  hedonism  may  tremble, 
the  amateur  may  lose  his  collections,  the  salon  may  be 
dispersed,  but  youth  will  not  be  suppressed ;  it  will  think  for 
itself,  despite  its  ancestors,  and  overturn  the  dogmas  and 
the  limits  of  the  past.  The  aim  of  humanity  is  not  happi- 
ness, but  perfection ;  life  is  to  be  devoted  not  to  enjoyment, 
but  to  the  ideal.  Culture,  science,  philosophy  are  to  be 
conceived  as  religious.  Thinkers,  not  politicians,  are  called 
upon  to  conduct  the  needed  revolution,  for  instead  of  being 
political,  it  should  be  moral,  and  its  result  is  to  be  the 
scientific  organization  of  mankind. 

This  essay  was  republished,  with  the  one  "On  Clerical 
Liberalism,"  in  Questwns  contemporaines  (1868),  when  the 
reactionaries  were  again  attempting  to  form  a  coalition 
to  suppress  liberty  of  thought.  The  changes  made  in  it — 
omissions,  verbal  substitutions,  punctuation — are  almost  in- 
significant, being  far  fewer  than  the  corrections  in  any 
other  of  these  pieces  from  La  Liberie  de  Penser,  with  one 
exception. 

This  exception  is  his  last  contribution,  an  unsigned  re- 
view, which  appeared  September  15,  1850.^^  The  title  is 
that  of  the  book  reviewed,  "Qu'est-ce  que  la  religion  dans 
la  nouvelle  philosophic  allemande?  Par  Hermann  Ewer- 
beck,"  a  volume  of  translations  chiefly  from  Feuerbach. 
In  opposition  to  the  school  represented  by  this  writer,  which 
finds  everything  Christian  ugly,  atrocious  or  ridiculous.  Re- 
nan  asserts  the  beauty  of  Christianity,  not  antique  beauty, 
which  was  that  of  the  finite,  but  a  new  manner  of  beauty, 

••The  article  was  promised  on  June  15  for  the  next  number.  It 
was  to  be  a  comparison  of  Ewerbeck's  book  with  Les  m&movres  d'wi 
enfant  d'ouvrier.  What  finally  appeared  from  Kenan's  pen  was  only 
half  of  what  was  promised.  The  other  book  was  reviewed  by  Amed6e 
Jacques.  Later  Ewerbeck's  translations  were  the  subject  of  three 
urticles  by  Jacquemard, 

3.3 


LA  LIBERTE  DE  PENSER 

a  new  mode  of  feeling,  sprung  from  human  nature  at  the 
appointed  time  and  disclosing  the  longing  for  the  infinite. 
"With  the  exception  of  the  introductory  paragraph  and 
the  final  page,  which,  though  a  quotation  from  the  book, 
has  nothing  to  do  with  the  main  topic,  the  whole  essay  is 
reprinted  in  Studies  in  Religious  History  under  the  title, 
'  *  M,  Feuerbach  et  la  nouvelle  ecole  hegelienne. ' '  The  omis- 
sions and  corrections,  while  not  very  numerous,  are  of  the 
same  character  as  those  already  mentioned.  Of  special 
interest  is  the  quotation  of  a  considerable  passage  from  The 
Future  of  Science,  a  quotation  that  is  increased  by  a  few 
sentences  in  the  republished  essay  .^^ 

This  final  contribution  to  La  Liherte  de  Penser  is  some- 
what out  of  harmony  with  the  general  tone  of  that  periodical, 
now  bitterly  fighting  the  clerical  reaction.  Both  in  date 
and  in  spirit,  the  essay  belongs  to  Kenan's  new  epoch. 
Eighteen  months  in  Italy  had  modified  his  outlook,  and  he 
was  now  permeated  with  the  sentiment  of  Italian  art.  He 
even  thinks  pietorially.  **The  representation  of  the  Incoro- 
nata,  where  Mary,  placed  between  the  Father  and  the  Son, 
receives  the  crown  from  the  hands  of  the  former  and  re- 
ceives the  homage  of  the  latter,  are  the  true  Trinity  of  Chris- 
tian piety. ' '  ^^ 

Still  more  significant  is  the  following  passage: 

M.  Feuerbach  should  have  been  plunged  into  livelier  springs 
than  those  of  his  exclusive  and  haughty  Germanism.  If,  seated 
amid  the  ruins  on  Mount  Palatine  or  Mount  Caelius,  he  had  heard 
the  sound  of  the  everlasting  bells  lengthen  out  and  die  on  the 
deserted  hills  where  Rome  once  stood,  or  if  from  the  lonely  shore 
of  the  Lido,  he  had  heard  the  carillon  of  Saint  Mark  die  away 
on  the  lagoons;  if  he  had  seen  Assisi  and  its  mystic  marvels,  its 

"  The  passages  are :  Que  si  rous  pratiques,  etc. ;  LibertS  341,  £titde3 

418,  Avenir  474,  475;  Le  mot  Dieu,  etc.;  Liberte  347,  348,  ttudes  418- 

419,  Avenir  475-476:  d  ceux  qv/i,  etc.;  not  in  Liberte,  Etudes  418, 
Avenir  476. 

**IAbert6,  p.  344;  ttudes,  p.  411. 

83 


ERNEST  RENAN 

double  basilica  with  the  great  legend  of  the  second  Christ  of  the 
Middle  Ages  traced  on  the  walls  of  this  holy  of  holies  by  the 
pencil  of  Cimabue  and  Giotto;  if  he  had  been  cloyed  with  the 
long,  sweet  gaze  of  the  virgins  of  Perugia  or  had  seen  in  San 
Domenico  at  Siena  the  ecstasy  of  Saint  Catherine,  no,  M.  Feuer- 
baeh  would  not  then  cast  opprobrium  on  one-half  of  human 
poetry  and  shriek  as  though  he  were  exorcising  the  ghost  of 
Judas  Iscariot. 

The  rigid  Breton  enthusiast  had  obviously  seen  unfa- 
miliar sights  and  breathed  an  unaccustomed  atmosphere. 
His  views  had  been  enlarged  and  his  manner  of  speech  soft- 
ened by  the  experience.  Though  not  different,  he  was  sub- 
stantially modified.  Before  discussing  this  experience,  how- 
ever, it  is  necessary  to  give  an  account  of  The  Future  of 
Science,  the  epitome  and  consummation  of  Renan's  epoch 
of  origins. 


CHAPTER  IV 

"the  future  of  sciekce" 


At  about  the  age  of  twenty-five  young  men  of  geniuw 
are  apt  to  spread  their  wings  in  some  characteristic  work. 
Such  works  have  a  freshness  and  enthusiasm  of  inward 
experience,  not  yet  troubled  with  much  contact  with  the 
actual  world.  They  have  the  fragrance  of  the  springtime 
when  originality  is  in  blossom,  unripe  but  promising.  In 
1848  Renan  felt  the  impulse  of  this  creative  agitation,  and 
he  produced  The  Future  of  Science  (Hie  nunc  os  ex  ossihus 
meis  et  caro  de  came  mea,  is  the  motto),  embodying  the 
results  of  his  religious  struggles  and  of  his  meditations  both 
on  his  studies  and  on  the  newly  disclosed  field  of  politics. 

The  year  1848  [he  tells  us  in  the  preface]  made  upon  me  a 
most  vivid  impression.  Till  then  I  had  never  reflected  upon  the 
problems  of  socialism.  These  problems,  springing  as  it  were  out 
of  the  earth  and  coming  forth  to  frighten  the  world,  took  hold 
of  my  mind  and  became  an  integral  part  of  my  philosophy.  Up 
to  the  month  of  May,  I  scarcely  had  the  leisure  to  listen  to  sounds 
from  without.  A  memoir  on  the  Study  of  Greek  in  the  Middle 
Ages,  which  I  had  begun  in  answer  to  a  question  of  the  Academy 
of  Inscriptions  and  Belles-Lettres,  absorbed  all  my  thoughts.  Then 
I  passed  my  examination  for  the  degree  in  Philosophy  in  Septem- 
ber. Toward  the  month  of  October,^  I  was  face  to  face  with 
myself.  I  felt  the  need  of  reviewing  the  new  faith  that  had 
replaced  my  ruined  Catholicism. 

*  The  writing  must  have  occupied  four  or  five  months,  for,  though 
Eenan  says  in  his  preface  that  it  took  "the  last  two  months  of  1848 
and  the  first  four  or  five  months  of  1849,"  the  dedication  to  Bumoui 
is  dated  Marcb^  1849. 

85 


ERNEST  RENAN 

This  new  faith  he  called  science,  for  '  *  to  know  is  to  be  initi- 
ated into  God. '^     (P.  17.) 

What  he  has  to  say  of  politics  is  mostly  recent,  though  it 
has  its  roots  in  his  previous  meditations:  for  his  reflections 
on  religion  and  on  his  studies  he  had  recourse  to  his  "Note- 
books" of  1845-1846,  which  he  reread  on  this  occasion.^  In 
no  case,  however,  did  he  copy  anything  directly  from  these 
''Notebooks"  into  The  Future  of  Science;  his  intellectual 
and  emotional  associations  were  vivid  and  permanent;  his 
mind  was  permeated  not  only  with  the  ideas  he  had  wrested 
from  the  formless  infinite,  but  even  with  the  verbal  expres- 
sions and  the  images  into  which  he  had  molded  these  ideas. 
His  repetitions  furnish  a  most  interesting  subject  of  study. 

The  Future  of  Science,  while  frequently  in  form  abstract 
and  general,  is,  as  a  confession  of  faith,  largely  personal, 
yet  it  is  personal  in  a  sense  far  different  from  the  manner 
of  the  "Notebooks.'*'  These  represent  experiences,  soul- 
struggles,  meditations,  and  efforts  to  reduce  thought  to  lan- 
guage^ The  Future  of  Science  presents  the  product  of  such 
struggles  and  efforts  prepared  for  the  public.  "Thought," 
says  Renan,  "presents  itself  to  me  in  a  complex  way;  the 
clear  form  comes  only  after  a  labor  analogous  to  that  of 
the  gardener,  who  cuts  his  tree,  trims  it  and  sets  it  up  as 
a  fence."  (Preface,  p.  iv.)  The  cutting  and  trimming  had 
been  done  in  the  "Notebooks";  the  building  of  the  fence — 
certainly  a  more  formal  procedure,  even  when  the  inclosure 
zigzags  instead  of  running  in  a  straight  line — ^was  the  task 
of  the  volume. 

A  few  illustrations  will  show  how  the  author  utilized 
the  jottings  he  had  made  two  years  before.  His  isolated 
remarks  are,  as  might  have  been  expected,  elaborated  and 
fitted  into  the  consecutive  thought  of  some  passage  in  the 
book. 

*  See  the  date  1848  to  a  note  added  to  89  his,  CaMers  de  jeunesse, 
p.  406. 

86 


THE  FUTURE  OF  SCIENCE 

Singular   revolutions   that   result   from   the  apotheosis   of   the 

classics  and  the  mania  of  rhetoricians,  Moliere,  so  hostile  to  the 

learned  in  us,  etc.;  becoming  the  delight  of  the  erudite,  etc.     The 

same  may  be  said  of  many  ancients,  Horace,  Homer,  for  example. 

What  would  be  their  surprise  to  see  themselves  thus  become  objects 

of  erudition.  ^,  ^  ,  .  ^^_ 

Nouveaux  Cahiers,  p.  197,  n.  37. 

Criticism  is  often  more  serious  than  its  object.  A  madrigal  or 
a  frivolous  novel  may  be  seriously  commented  upon ;  austere  learned 
men  have  consecrated  their  lives  to  productions  whose  authors 
thought  of  nothing  but  amusement.  All  that  comes  from  the  past 
is  serious;  some  day  Beranger  will  be  an  object  of  science  and 
will  be  exalted  by  the  Academy  of  Inscriptions.  Moliere,  so 
inclined  to  mock  the  learned  in  us,  would  he  not  be  a  bit  surprise^ 
to  see  himself  fallen  into  their  hands? 

Avenir  de  la  Science,  p.  215. 

Why  have  we  no  longer  in  our  modern  society  the  type  of  the 
ancient  philosopher,  who  did  not  write,  but  fulfilled  a  social  func- 
tion, Socrates,  Stilphon,  Antisthenes,  Pyrrho,  etc.  .  .  .  They 
talked  and  kept  school,  that  is  all. — It  is  because  1st,  Christianity; 

2nd,  hooks  kill  the  school. 

Nouveaux  Canters,  p.  238,  n.  105. 

We  have  nothing  analogous  to  the  ancient  school.  Our  schools 
are  exclusively  designed  for  children  and  hence  devoted  to  semi- 
ridicule,  like  everything  pedagogical;  our  club  is  wholly  political, 
and  yet  man  needs  spiritual  reunions.  The  ancient  school  was 
a  gymnasium  of  the  mind  for  every  age.  The  sage,  like  Socrates, 
Stilphon,  Antisthenes,  Pyrrho,  writing  nothing,  but  speaking  to 
disciples  or  habitues  (  Oi  cvvovres),  is  now  impossible.  The 
philosophic  conversation,  such  as  Plato  has  preserved  for  us  in 
his  dialogues,  the  ancient  Symposia,  can  no  longer  be  conceived 
in  owe  days.     The  Church  and  the  press  have  killed  the  school. 

Avenir,  p.  466. 

Sometimes  the  elaboration  is  not  altogether  happy. 

He  who  would  go  by  sea  from  Panama  to  Carthagena  is  nearer 
Carthagena  at  Cape  Horn  than  at  Panama,  and  yet  he  has  turned 
his  back  under  full  sail  on  his  destination.  The  same  for  humanity. 
For  it,  to  retire  is  to  advance. 

Cahiers  de  jeunease,  p.  222,  n.  37. 
87 


ERNEST  RENAN 

A  ship  sailing  from  the  wild  western  coast  of  the  United  States 
to  reach  the  eastern,  civilized  coast,  would  apparently  be  much 
nearer  its  destination  at  the  point  of  departure  than  when  it 
struggled  with  the  tempests  and  snows  of  Cape  Horn.  And  yet, 
looking  at  things  aright,  this  ship  is  at  Cape  Horn  nearer  its 
destination  than  it  was  on  the  shores  of  the  Oregon.  The  fatal 
circuit  was  inevitable.  In  the  same  way,  the  human  spirit  has 
been  obliged  to  traverse  deserts  to  arrive  at  the  promised  land. 

Avenir,  p.  SOfe. 

Notes  suggested  by  his  reading — and  to  Renan  books  were 
elements  of  experience  quite  as  real  as  persons  and  inci- 
dents— appear  in  impersonal  form. 

The  Apologie  pour  tons  les  grands  hommes  qui  ont  ete  fausse- 

ment  soupgonnes  de  magie,  of  Naude  (1625),  was  then  a  book  of 

circumstance,  of  living  controversy,  even  courageous.     I  imagine 

that,  in  a  few  centuries,  the  same  will  be  said  of  a  book  written 

to-day  to  directly  combat  supematuralism.*     They  will  laugh  at 

it  from  their  point  of  view,  they  will  find  it  idle  to  have  taken 

the  trouble  to  make  a  frontal  attack  with  a  direct  purpose.    They 

will   think  that   the  writer  should  have  taken   the  contrary  for 

granted,  and  not  even  have  discussed  it,  at  the  same  time  that 

they  note  the  fact  as  characteristic  of  the  epoch.     So  things  go; 

when  a  result  is  achieved,  we  no  longer  conceive  how  difficult  it 

was  to  accomplish.     Nothing  seems   simpler.     It  is   the  Qgg  of 

Columbus.     Cf.  article  on  Naude  by  M.  Sainte-Beuve,  Portraits 

litt.,  I.  p.  473.  ..  ^  - .  _.         __ 

Nouveaux  Canters,  p.  2,0,  n.  Id. 

How  many  works  there  are  which,  though  having  no  absolute 
value,  have  had  in  their  time  and  in  consequence  of  established 

'In  writing  this  entry  Renan  had  in  mind  his  own  views  about 
miracles.  In  Nephthali,  note  11,  he  says:  "Cruel  destiny  that  binds 
the  thinker  to  the  acquired  results  of  his  time,  and  forces  him  at 
his  own  risk  to  conquer  more  advanced  views.  Hereby  the  noblest 
intelligence  often  exhausts  its  powers  to  win  a  truth  which  will  in 
a  few  centuries  be  in  the  domain  of  children.  For  example,  if  I 
should  criticize  Christianity,  I  should  in  five  centuries  be  outside  the 
circle,  I  should  have  no  further  value,  for  the  problem  will  be  solved 
in  everyday  opinion.  But  it  is  nevertheless  honorable.  The  statue 
remains,  when  everything  about  it  has  been  brushed  away."  Cdhiers 
de  jeunesse,  p.  199.  Five  hundred  years!  The  young  man  was  truly 
ambitious  for  glory. 

88 


THE  FUTURE  OF  SCIENCE 

prejudices,  a  serious  importance!     The  Apologie  of  Naude  pour 

les  grands  hommes  faussement  soupgonnes  de  magie  does  not  teach 

us  much  and  yet  it  might  in  its  time  have  exercised  a  real  influence. 

How  many  books  of  our  century  will  be  thus  judged  by  the  future! 

Writings  designed  to  combat  an  error  disappear  with  the  error 

they  have  combated.    When  a  result  is  achieved,  we  do  not  picture 

the  trouble  it  has  cost.     It  has  needed  a  giant  to  conquer  what 

becomes  later  the  domain  of  a  child.  .,  „,  „ 

Avemr,  p.  216. 

See  in  Portraits  litteraires  of  M.  Sainte-Beuve,  vol.  i,  p.  407, 

some  very  luminous  reflections  on  the  Wertherians.     One  may  be 

Wertherian  in  theory  without  being  so  in  practice,  and  this  too 

without  any  farce,  for  that  would  be  too  ridiculous.     No,  one 

can  be  this  well  enough  without  the  pistol  shot.    It  means  having 

a   penetrating  mind   capable  of  taking  an  interest  in   thought. 

Goethe,  for  example,  do  you  believe  he  wanted  to  kill  himself? 

No,  indeed.     I  am  a  little   the  same;   I  cannot  help   admiring 

Werther,  because  by  one  of  his  sides  he  is  a  philosopher;  but  to 

imitate  him,  thanks;  for  life  is  full  of  color  for  me;  I  hold  fast 

moral  ideas  and  truth,  even  when  I  am  skeptical;  and  then  there 

is  so  much  pleasure  in  describing  it  all  that  one  ceases  to  suffer  in 

describing  his  sufferings.  _  , .        ,     .  „__ 

Canters  de  jeunesse,  p.  372,  n.  61. 

Life,  always  life.  This  explains  how  science  formed  an  essen- 
tial part  of  the  intellectual  system  of  Goethe.  To  seek,  discuss, 
inspect, — in  one  word,  speculate,  will  always  be  most  pleasant, 
whatever  may  be  the  reality.  However  much  of  a  Werther  one 
may  be,  there  is  so  much  pleasure  in  describing  it  all,  that  life 
becomes  full  of  color  again !    (Joethe,  I  am  sure,  was  never  tempted 

to  shoot  himself.  ,       ,  ^^^ 

Aventr,  p.  449. 

It  is  not  that  I  do  not  admire  Telemaque,  but  what  I  admire 
in  it  is  precisely  the  modem  genius  (for  that  too  is  admirable), 
but  not  the  ancient  form;  for  example,  I  admire  the  Christian 
spirit  that  dictates  the  Elysian  fields,  I  admire  the  advanced  po- 
litical ideas  of  Fenelon.  But  I  cannot  admire  this  description 
or  that  comparison  taken  from  Homer  or  Virgil.  All  I  can  say 
is  to  add  coldly  and  without  admiration:  Here  is  a  man  who  was 
gifted  with  a  very  delicate  taste  for  the  antique. 

Cahiers,  p.  356,  n,  41. 
89 


ERNEST  RENAN 

What  do  we  admire  in  TelSmaquef  Is  it  the  perfect  imitation 
of  antique  forms?  Is  it  this  description,  that  comparison  bor- 
rowed from  Homer  or  Virgil?  No;  this  makes  us  say  coldly  and 
as  though  it  were  a  matter  of  stating  a  fact:  "This  man  has  ac- 
quired a  very  delicate  taste  for  the  antique."  What  arouses  our  ad- 
miration and  sympathy  is  precisely  what  is  modern  in  this 
fine  book;  it  is  the  Christian  genius  which  has  dictated  to  Fenelon 
the  description  of  the  Elysian  fields;  it  is  those  political 
ideas,   so  moral   and   so  rational,   divined   by  miracle  amidst   a 

Saturnalia  of  absolute  power.  ^  ^., 

Avemr,  p.  191. 

But  what  is  of  still  greater  interest,  because  profoundly 
characteristic  of  Renan  's  most  typical  thinking,  is  the  actual 
experience,  often  a  matter  of  vivid  personal  suffering,  car- 
ried over  into  the  calm  region  of  philosophy  as  though  it 
were  a  subject  for  purely  abstract  discussion. 

The  note,  part  of  which  follows,  is  concerned  with  the 
humiliations  one  has  to  suffer  in  one's  earthly  career.  The 
first  characters  to  be  considered  are  the  mediocre  who  realize 
their  insignificance  and  bear  every  insult  without  a  murmur. 
They  are  estimable.  Then  come  the  mediocre  who  think 
themselves  distinguished  and  fire  up  at  the  first  offense. 
These  are  ridiculous  and  blameworthy.  Another  group  are 
the  distinguished  who  are  proud  and  would  kill  themselves 
rather  than  bend. 

For  example,  they  would  die  of  hunger  rather  than  accept  a 
vulgar  and  apparently  humiliating  position  that  would  give  them 
bread,  or  serve  to  lead  them  ultimately  to  their  aim.  These  are 
to  be  pitied,  and  they  have  not  attained  the  summum  philosophi- 
cum.  Add  that  they  are  on  the  edge  of  the  highest  degi'ee  of  the 
ridiculous.  For  if  they  are  not  geniuses  as  they  think  (and  who 
can  assure  them  of  it,  for  how  many  others  have  so  believed  with- 
out being  geniuses?)  they  are  the  most  silly,  the  most  ridiculous, 
the  most  insipid  of  fops,  like  all  these  types  a  la  Chatterton,  these 
young  people  of  genius  who  find  everything  beneath  them  and 
fulminate  against  society  because  it  has  not  awarded  them  a 
fit  portion  to  permit  them  to  give  themselves  up  to  their  sublime 
thoughts  (Heavens!  what  a  horrible  type  and  how  it  inspires  me 

90 


THE  FUTURE  OP  SCIENCE 

with  prodigious  horror!  Add  to  this  that  they  are  commonly  lazy, 
glory  in  doing  little  work,  and  would  be  fed  in  order  to  smoke 
and  do  nothing,  and  find  that  good  form.  Ah !  if  they  were  serious 
workers,  yes),  and  who  would  not  for  the  world  accept  any  vulgar, 
humiliating,  hard,  but  not  dishonorable  employment  that  does 
not  keep  one  from  thinking,  feeling,  and  developing  one's  genius. 

Then  there  are  true  geniuses  who  are  aware  of  it,  esteem  them- 
selves and  are  inwardly  proud.  But  outwardly  they  attach  im- 
portance to  nothing.  If  Providence  has  refused  them  the  neces- 
sary fortune,  they  suffer,  but  bow  without  a  word,  do  all  that 
is  demanded,  suffer  all  that  is  demanded,  insults,  contempt,  whims, 
without  a  word,  but  retaining  all  their  inward  dignity.  They 
have  made  a  complete  sacrifice  of  what  is  not  themselves.  They 
despise  the  caprice  of  a  master  and  the  master  himself  too  much 
to  feel  the  weight.  Exalted  in  themselves,  they  despise  everything 
and  would  regard  it  as  too  great  an  honor  paid  to  these  vulgar 
creatures  to  consider  themselves  humiliated  by  their  outrages.  They 
mock  the  one  they  serve  and  thereby  are  superior  to  him :  but 
they  are  careful  to  be  silent  and  not  to  act  like  the  superficial 
man  who  feels  offended  and  is  foolish  enough  to  react  against 
such  miseries.  Feeble  soul,  do  you  not  see  that  you  put  yourself 
on  a  level  with  him  in  doing  him  the  honor  to  react  against  him? 
We  put  ourselves  on  a  level  with  him  against  whom  we  get  irri- 
tated and  to  whom  we  attach  importance.  "We  do  not  feel  the 
insult  of  the  crazy  man,  because  we  know  ourselves  too  far  superior 
to  him.  Only  those  of  the  populace  feel  the  insults  of  blackguards, 
because  they  are  their  equals.  Surely  a  man  of  brains  is  less 
offended  by  the  insult  of  a  passing  drayman  than  by  that  of  a 
man  of  education. — Come  now!  pride  of  the  sage,  wholly  inward. 
It  is  there  that  he  rises  superior  to  all,  outside  he  is  servant  to 
everj^hing  and  everybody,  yet  mocking  them  all.  Thereby  also  he 
will  direct  his  life  well,  he  will  reach  his  aim,  a  modest  inde- 
pendence, and  he  will  avoid  the  horrible  type  of  Chatterton  apes. 

My  friend  Ernest,  regulate  thyself  according  to  these  princi- 
ples. Despise  these  mediocre  and  positive  men,  who  for  money 
pass  through  every  path,  every  depressing  humiliation;  for  ex- 
ample, the  one  who  found  it  ill  that  thou  shouldst  seek  a  place 
that  left  thee  much  time  for  thinking  and  work,  who  held  himself 
up  as  a  model,  a  man  who,  as  he  said,  had  accepted  in  his 
youth  a  place  that  left  him  only  one  free  hour  a  day,  which  he 
found  to  be  a  great  deal.  Despise  also  those  young  hot-heads 
who  think  themselves  geniuses  because  they  wish  to  do  nothing, 

91 


ERNEST  RENAN 

and  who  look  on  thee  with  pity,  thee,  poor  usher  in  a  boarding 
school.  I  am  sure  that,  at  the  sight  of  thee,  if  they  happened 
to  compare  themselves  to  thee,  they  would  make  an  eloquent  pro- 
test. And  if  they  knew  M.  Crouzet,  what  wouldn't  they  say? 
They  would  treat  thee  as  low  and  debased  to  suffer  all  that  without 
a  word.  And  I,  I  think  that  I  should  be  silly  if  I  spoke.  Well, 
well!  The  day  will  come  when  these  Chattertons  will  be  nothing, 
will  be  immorally  poor,  obliged  in  order  to  live  to  have  recourse 
to  immoral  means,  for  not  having  been  willing  to  do  what  is  per- 
missible, when  above  all  they  will  amount  to  nothing  in  estimation 
and  in  science,  and  when  thou,  thou  wilt  be  in  the  ideal  regions. 
O  God!  0  God!  What  consolations  thou  reservest  for  those  who 
suffer  for  thee.  Yes,  it  is  for  thee  that  I  suffer.  Ah !  if  I  had 
wished,  I  should  have  been  there  at  the  Carmelites,  petted,  the 
first  in  all  and  everywhere,  full  of  hope.  Well,  no!  I  am  here 
on  the  lowest  step  of  the  social  ladder,  annoyed  by  a  real  tyrant, 
plaything  of  his  caprices,  never  mind.  It  is  for  my  conscience. 
Dominus  pars  hereditatis  meae  et  calicis  mei;  tu  es  qui  restitues 
hereditatem  meam  mihi. 

Cahiers,  pp.  385-389,  n.  79. 

Discussing  the  possibility  of  uniting  manual  labor  and  the 
intellectual  life  in  The  Future  of  Science,  he  continues: 

There  are  men  eminently  endowed  by  nature,  but  little  favored 
by  fortune,  who  become  proud  and  almost  intractable,  and  would 
die  rather  than  accept  for  a  living  anything  that  general  opinion 
regards  as  an  outward  humiliation.  Werther  quits  his  ambassador 
because  he  finds  silly  and  impertinent  people  in  his  salon;  Chat- 
terton  eomroits  suicide  because  the  Lord  Mayor  has  offered  him  a 
position  as  valet.*  This  extreme  sensibility  to  externals  shows 
a  certain  humility  of  soul  and  demonstrates  the  fact  that  those 
who  feel  it  have  not  attained  the  lofty  summits  of  philosophy. 
They  are  even  on  the  edge  of  the  highest  degree  of  the  ridiculous, 
for,  if  they  are  not  really  geniuses  (and  who  can  assure  them  of  it! 
How  many  others  have  like  them  so  believed  without  being  ge- 
niuses?), they  risk  resembling  the  most  silly,  the  most  ridiculous, 
the  most  foppish  of  all  men,  those  would-be  Chattertons,  those 
young  people  of  unrecognized  genius,  who  find  everything  beneath 

*  Kenan's  knowledge  of  Chatterton  is,  it  is  clear,  wholly  derived 
from  de  Vigny's  drama. 

92 


THE  FUTURE  OP  SCIENCE 

them,  and  anathematize  society,  because  it  has  not  awarded  a  fit 
portion  to  those  who  devote  themselves  to  sublime  thoughts.  Genius 
is  not  at  all  humiliated  by  manual  work.  Certainly  it  must  not  be 
required  to  give  its  whole  soul  to  a  trade,  that  it  be  absorbed  in 
its  oflfiee  or  workshop.  But  dreaming  is  not  a  profession,  and  it 
is  an  eiTor  to  think  that  great  authors  would  have  thought  much 
more  if  they  had  had  nothing  to  do  but  think.  Genius  is  patient 
and  full  of  life,  I  might  say  almost  robust  and  rustic.  "The  force 
of  life  is  an  essential  part  of  genius."  It  is  through  the  struggles 
of  an  external  situation  that  great  geniuses  have  been  developed, 
and,  if  they  had  had  no  other  profession  but  that  of  thinkers, 
perhaps  they  would  not  have  been  so  great,  Beranger  was  a 
clerk.  The  truly  lofty  man  has  all  his  pride  within.  To  pay 
attention  to  the  outward  humiliations  is  to  show  that  one  still 
gives  some  consideration  to  things  that  are  not  of  the  soul.  The 
brutish  slave,  who  felt  himself  inferior  to  his  master,  bore  stripes 
as  a  matter  of  fatality,  without  a  dream  of  reacting  in  anger. 
The  cultivated  slave,  who  felt  himself  equal  to  his  master,  must 
have  hated  and  cursed  him,  but  the  philosophic  slave,  who  felt 
himself  superior  to  his  master,  could  not  have  felt  himself  in 
any  way  humiliated  though  serving  him.  To  have  been  irritated 
against  him  would  have  been  to  put  himself  on  his  level;  better 
despise  him  inwardly  and  be  silent.  To  have  haggled  over  matters 
of  respect  and  submission  would  have  been  to  take  them  seriously. 
We  feel  only  the  offenses  of  our  equals;  the  insults  of  a  black- 
guard touch  his  like,  but  do  not  reach  us.  Thus  those  whose  inward 
excellence  has  made  them  susceptible,  irritable,  jealous  for  an 
outward  dignity  in  proportion  to  their  worth,  have  not  yet  passed 
beyond  a  certain  level,  nor  understood  the  true  royalty  of  men 

of  mind.*  .       .  .^^     ^«« 

Aventr,  pp.  401,  402. 

From  the  previous  examples  it  might  seem  that  Renan 
worked  over  his  notes  with  the  systematic  purpose  of  turning 
the  personal  into  the  impersonal,  but  this  is  not  so.  What 
he  designed  for  publication  is  often  quite  as  personal  as 

'  In  the  thoughts  on  Werther  cited  above,  Eenan  refers  to  a  passage 
in  an  essay  by  Sainte-Beuve.  The  essay  is  the  one  on  Charles  Nodier 
and  the  remarks  in  question  are  in  Sainte-Beuve 's  usual  tone  of  com- 
plete detachment.  In  Chatterton  and  the  Wertherians  he  simply  views 
an  interesting  literary  phenomenon.  Renan,  on  the  other  hand,  is 
giving  the  result  of  a  bitter  experience. 

93 


ERNEST  RENAN 

what  he  wrote  for  his  own  edification;  it  is  only  less  inti- 
mate, better  adapted  to  the  eyes  of  strangers. 

What  is  regarded  as  the  real  in  knowledge  is  nothing  but  the 
puffed  up.  When  you  push  on  to  the  bottom,  continually  general- 
izing and  abstracting,  you  reach  really  A=A,  which  is  nothing. 
To  seize  the  real,  you  must  go  up  to  a  certain  protrusion  that 
covers  this;  here  you  believe  yourself  at  the  positive;  then,  if  you 
go  beyond,  you  fall  into  nothingness.  What  then  is  knowledge? 
This  thought  has  often  made  me  suffer,  when  I  have  seen  it  thus 
melt  away.  In  mathematics  too;  such  a  thing  seems  positive,  and, 
being  pressed,  all  disappears;  you  reach  A=A,  which  is  horribly 
empty.  This  result  has  come  to  me  a  hundred  times  in  a  hun- 
dred different  matters.  Ah!  That  I  could  say  the  thing  just  as 
it  seemed  to  me!  Melting  away,  dissolution,  the  knot  alone  has 
value,  untie  it,  nothing  remains.  This  is  explained  perhaps  by 
the  ideas  of  Kant:  That  reason  is  only  form,  and  that  you  will 
find  only  emptiness  if  you  do  not  put  in  the  positive  element  of 
fact. 

Comparison  that  marvelously  presents  my  thought;  an  equation 
that,  at  bottom,  is  identical,  but  which,  in  its  actual  form,  con- 
tains a  great  complication  of  terms.  The  seizahle  is  only  there; 
push  on,  you  reach  A=A,  which  is  nothing. 

Cahiers,  pp.  265,  266,  n.  82. 

If  you  place  yourself  at  the  point  of  view  of  substance  and 
ask :  This  Grod,  is  he  or  is  he  not  ? — Heavens !  I  answer,  it.  is 
he  who  is,  and  all  the  rest  that  seems  to  be.  If  the  word  being 
has  any  meaning,  it  is  surely  as  applied  to  the  ideal.  What,  you 
admit  that  matter  is,  because  your  eyes  and  your  hands  tell  you 
so,  and  you  doubt  the  divine  being  that  your  whole  nature  pro- 
claims from  the  very  beginning?  And  what  is  the  meaning  of  the 
phrase:  "Matter  is?"  What  does  it  leave  in  the  hands  after 
rigorous  analysis?  I  don't  know,  and  to  tell  the  truth,  I  think  the 
question  impertinent;  for  we  must  stop  at  simple  notions.  Be- 
yond lies  the  gulf.  Reason  carries  only  to  a  certain  medium 
region;  above  and  below,  it  is  confounded,  like  a  sound  that,  by 
becoming  too  low  or  too  high  in  pitch  ceases  to  be  a  sound,  or 
at  least  ceases  to  be  perceived.  I  like,  for  my  individual  use, 
to  compare  objects  of  reasoning  to  those  foamy  or  frothy  ob- 
jects, in  which  the  substance  is  slight  and  which  have  being  only 
through  puffing  up.     If  you  too  closely  pursue  the  substantial 

94 


THE  FUTURE  OF  SCIENCE 

ground,  there  remains  nothing  but  fleshless  unity ;  as  mathematical 
formulas,  pressed  too  far,  all  yield  a  fundamental  identity,  and 
mean  something  only  on  condition  of  not  being  too  greatly  sim- 
plified. Every  intellectual  act,  like  every  equation,  reduces  at 
bottom  to  A=A.  Novs'  at  this  limit  there  is  no  longer  any  knowl- 
edge, there  is  no  longer  an  intellectual  act.  Science  begins  only 
with  details.  For  exercise  of  mind,  surface  is  needed,  the  variable, 
the  diverse,  otherwise  you  are  drowned  in  the  infinite  One.  The 
One  exists  and  is  perceptible  only  through  development  in  di- 
versity, that  is,  in  phenomena.  Beyond  is  repose,  is  death.  Knowl- 
edge is  the  infinite  poured  into  a  finite  mold.    The  faces  of  unity 

are  alone  the  object  of  science.  .  ,„„,_„ 

Avemr,  pp.  476,  47/. 

Oh !  read  the  letter  of  Fichte  in  which  he  describes  to  his  friend 
his  mode  of  life,  his  happiness  in  his  poverty,  etc.;  his  ex- 
uberance of  joy,  the  absence  of  ennui,  the  taste  he  finds  in  life, 
etc.  Oh!  how  well  I  understand  this!  It  has  touched  my  system 
of  life.  It  is  admirable.  He  is  superior  to  me  inasmuch  as  he 
has  far  less  reflection  about  himself,  more  spontaneity,  and  goes 
straight  to  the  truth;  true  stoic,  true  and  without  any  mental 
reserve  about  personal  matters. 

Nouveaux  Cahiers,  pp.  20,  21,  n.  14. 

That  Mary  (contemplation)  has  the  better  part,  is  literally  true 
of  science.  One  of  the  noblest  souls  of  modern  times,  Fichte, 
assures  us  that  he  had  reached  perfect  happiness  and  that  at 
times  he  tasted  such  joy  as  to  make  him  almost  afraid.  Poor 
m^n!  at  the  same  time  he  was  dying  of  poverty.  How  often 
in  my  poor  room  amid  my  books,  have  I  tasted  the  fullness  of 
happiness  and  defied  the  whole  world  to  procure  for  any  one 
purer  joys  than  those  I  found  in  calm  and  disinterested  think- 
ing! How  often  dropping  my  pen  and  abandoning  myself  to  the 
thousand  sentiments  whose  intermingling  produces  an  instant  ele- 
vation of  the  whole  being,  I  have  said  to  heaven:     Only  give 

me  life,  I  will  take  care  of  the  rest!  ,       .  ^_. 

Aventr,  p.  450. 

One  calls  himself  a  disciple  of  Plato,  of  Descartes,  etc.,  with- 
out adoring  them;  why  not  a  disciple  of  Jesus  without  adoring 
him,  regarding  him  as  the  greatest  of  men,  the  moralist  par  ex- 
cellence, and  attaching  oneself  to  him?  In  this  way,  every  man 
ought  to  be  a  Christian.  ^^.^^^^  ^    ^^^^  ^^  ^^ 

95 


"     ERNEST  RENAN 

There  have  been  made  heretofore  two  categories  of  men  from 
the  point  of  view  of  religion:  religious  men,  believing  a  positive 
dogma,  and  the  irreligious,  placing  themselves  outside  all  re- 
vealed belief.  This  is  unbearable :  henceforth  one  must  class  thus — 
religious  men,  taking  life  seriously  and  believing  in  the  holiness 
of  things;  frivolous  men,  without  faith,  without  seriousness,  with- 
out moral  ideas.  All  who  adore  something  are  brothers,  or  cer- 
tainly less  hostile  than  those  who  adore  only  self-interest  and 
pleasure.  It  is  indubitable  that  I  more  resemble  a  Catholic  or  a 
Buddhist  than  a  skeptical  mocker,  and  my  proof  of  this  is  my 
inward  sympathies.  I  love  the  one,  I  detest  the  other.  I  can  even 
call  myself  a  Christian,  since  I  recognize  that  I  owe  to  Chris- 
tianity most  of  the  elements  of  my  faith,  about  as  M.  Cousin 
has  a  right  to  call  himself  a  Platonist  or  a  Cartesian  without 
accepting  the  whole  heritage  of  Plato  and  Descartes,  and  above 
all  without  being  obliged  to  regard  them  as  prophets.* 

Avenir,  pp.  482,  483. 

Aristotle 's  remark  that  some  men  are  naturally  slaves,  has 
an  interesting  development.  The  point  came  up  in  a  uni- 
versity disputation  for  a  doctorate;^  later  the  quotation 
appears  in  some  reflections  on  the  rights  of  man  and  the 
French  Revolution."  In  Avenir  its  truth  is  denied  (p.  339) 
in  connection  with  a  passage  on  democracy,  with  the  moral 


(< 


•References  to  a  few  further  passages  for  comparison  are  sub- 
joined. It  need  hardly  be  said  that  the  list  is  merely  casual  and 
makes  no  pretense  to  exhaustiveness: 

Cahxers,  p.  249,  n.  59           Avenir,  p.  269 

"  "  260,"  78                "       "   380 

"  "346,"  34 

"  "     17,"  23 

"  "349,"  37 

"  "291,  "124 

"  "  356,"  42 

"  "249,"  59 

"  "221,"  36 

"  "370,"  58 

Nowveaux  Cdhiers  "      3,"  1 

"  "  "  303 

"             "  "  184,'"  15  bis 

^CaUers,  pp.  206,  207. 
•Hid.,  p.  260. 


463 
58 
60 
n.  169 

183 
p.  270 
"  376 
"  421 
n.  47 
p.  380 
n.  14  and  p. 221 


t  < 


<( 


96 


THE  FUTURE  OF  SCIENCE 

that  we  must  elevate  the  masses  in  order  to  avoid  the  new 
barbarism.  The  procedure  illustrates  one  kind  of  action 
of  Kenan's  mind:  like  a  magnet,  it  seized  from  the  environ- 
ment whatever  belonged  to  it,  and  held  this  fast  till  it  was 
needed. 

II 

The  Future  of  Science  is  a  series  of  twenty-three  essays, 
setting  forth  Kenan's  general  ideas,  together  with  a  good 
many  special  applications.  He  seems  to  have  tried  to  get 
in  pretty  much  all  of  his  philosophy  as  it  stood  at  the  date 
of  composition.  "Here  will  be  found,  without  any  diminu- 
tion," he  wrote  forty  years  later,  "the  little  conscientious 
Breton  who,  one  day,  fled  in  fear  from  Saint  Sulpice,  because 
he  believed  he  had  found  that  perhaps  a  part  of  what  his 
masters  had  taught  him  was  not  wholly  true. "  *  As  a  re- 
sult of  the  attempt  at  completeness,  there  is  no  exact  se- 
quence of  thought,  for  though  there  is  a  general  progress, 
this  is  by  no  means  definite.  The  earlier  chapters  may  be 
said  to  deal  with  the  character  of  science  and  its  tasks ;  these 
chapters  are  followed  by  a  group  devoted  more  particularly 
to  his  own  science,  philology,  with  his  theory  of  human 
progress  from  syncretism  through  analysis  to  synthesis; 
then  comes  an  application  of  his  ideas  to  socialism;  and 
finally  there  is  a  return  to  the  idea  of  science  as  the  new 
religion.  Never  is  a  chapter  limited,  however,  to  a  single 
topic,  for  the  views  are  so  interrelated  that  they  spring 
up  together  as  luxuriously  and  inextricably  as  the  vegeta- 
tion of  a  tropical  forest.  Karely  does  a  chapter  grow  out 
of  that  immediately  preceding  it,  and  the  order  could  often 
be  interchanged  without  detriment.  In  fact,  Kenan  himself 
seems  to  have  been  rather  undecided  about  his  arrangement, 
for  he  transferred  long  passages  from  one  position  to  an- 

•  Preface,  p.  vi. 

97 


ERNEST  RENAN 

other,  as  is  evidenced  by  the  fact  that,  in  several  instances, 
the  Table  of  Contents  does  not  correspond  with  the  text.^° 

This  lack  of  definite  order  results  from  the  incompatibility 
between  the  author's  ideas  and  the  processes  of  scholastic 
definition  and  division.  In  Kenan's  view  distinctions  are 
like  lines  of  demarcation  between  tints  that  fade  into  one 
another  at  the  edges  and  are  fully  perceptible  as  decidedly 
different  colors  only  as  you  approach  the  center.  Arrange- 
ment in  pigeonholes  would  falsify  the  thought.  Further- 
more, he  tries  to  express  the  whole,  rather  than  to  build 
it  up  out  of  the  separate  parts,  from  which  indeed  a  whole 
can  never  be  constructed.  He  looks  therefore  now  on  one 
face  of  this  whole,  now  on  another,  each  view  being  con- 
fessedly imperfect,  yet  all  combined  giving  as  nearly  as  pos- 
sible his  conception  in  the  only  manner  in  consonance  with 
our  faculties,  a  series  of  partial  views.  For  these  partial 
views  there  is  obviously  no  absolute  arrangement  required. 
Which  should  precede,  which  follow,  is  largely  a  matter  of 
convenience  or  of  personal  inclination,  or  of  psychological 
accident,  if  there  be  such  a  thing.  Apparent  lack  of  rigor 
in  general  forms,  combined  with  intense  rigor  in  the  analysis 
of  details,  is  therefore  characteristic  of  Renan's  method  from 
the  very  beginning. 

The  fundamental  idea  of  The  Future  of  Science  is  the 
substitution  of  science  for  the  Church,  of  investigation  for 
revelation,  of  criticism  for  dogma.  It  is  a  wider  interpre- 
tation of  Christian  doctrines,  a  translation  of  Catholicism 
into  terms  of  the  modern  spirit,  a  removal  of  shackles  from 
the  idea  of  God.  A  new  faith,  a  new  religion,  this  is  what 
he  had  in  view.    "The  more  I  advance,"  he  writes  to  Ber- 

"  In  Chapter  XVII  is  found  matter  assigned  by  the  Table  of  Con- 
tents to  Chapters  IV,  XVI,  and  XVIII,  matter  assigned  to  Chapter 
XXII  is  found  distributed  in  two  places  in  Chapter  XXIII,  and 
there  is  further  redistribution  within  chapters.  These  changes  may,  of 
course,  have  been  made  at  the  time  of  publication,  but  this  hardly 
aeems  probable. 

93 


THE  FUTURE  OF  SCIENCE 

thelot,  "the  more  I  see  dawn  in  the  present  the  elements  of 
a  new  religion."  (August  28,  1847.)  He  even  thought  of 
writing  the  lives  of  the  Saints  of  Science.^^ 

The  book  opens  with  the  distinction  between  the  vulgar, 
the  practical,  the  egotistical,  on  the  one  hand,  and,  on  the 
other,  the  ideal,  the  religious,  the  divine,  the  infinite;  this, 
the  one  thing  needful,  not  limited  by  dogma  or  confined  to 
morality,  as  in  the  customary  narrow  belief,  but  embrac- 
ing and  expressing  the  whole.  (Chapter  I.)  To  know  is 
the  least  profane  act  of  life.  Humanity,  moving  toward  per- 
fection, impelled  by  a  divine  force,  works  spontaneously  to 
construct  both  beliefs  and  such  mechanisms  as  church  and 
state,  which  are  regarded  as  sacred,  but  this  notion  must  be 
overthrown  and  the  systems  built  by  instinct  must  be  recon- 
structed by  reason,  by  science,  which  is  to  take  the  place  of 
religion.  Humanity  is  to  be  scientifically  organized,  and  then 
reason  must  organize  God.  (Chapter  II.)  Science  is  of 
human  value  only  as  seeking  what  revelation  pretends  to 
teach.  Supernaturalism  is  destroyed  by  modern  criticism, 
not  through  logical  or  metaphysical  argument,  but  from  tak- 
ing a  new  point  of  view.  Scientific  truth  regards  the  whole, 
and  is  not  fixed  in  formulas.  If  the  intelligent  seem  weaker 
than  the  barbarians,  progress  is  nevertheless  a  fact.  There 
is  no  decadence  in  humanity,  viewed  in  its  entirety,  and 
we  must  have  faith  in  the  future.     (Chapter  III.) 

Indifference  and  speculation  are  enemies  of  science.  In- 
dustrialism, too,  may  be  an  enemy,  if  taken  as  an  end,  but 
as  a  means  it  is  useful  to  progress.  The  heroes  of  the  dis- 
interested life  stand  against  materialism.  (Chapter  IV.) 
The  inevitable  progi-ess  of  science  destroys  consoling  be- 
liefs, such  as  that  in  personal  immortality,  but  the  new 
temple  will  be  more  magnificent  than  the  old.  In  the  true 
religion  schools  will  be  the  churches  and  philosophers  the 

^  Nouvelles  Etudes  d'histoire  religieuse,  p.  29. 

99 


ERNEST  RENAN 

priests,  for  it  demands  universal  culture.  (Chapter  V.) 
Science,  however,  is  not  for  mere  instruction ;  it  has  a  value 
in  itself,  and  must  not  lose  itself  in  pedantry  or  pedagogy. 
(Chapter  VI.)  Nor  is  the  mere  satisfaction  of  curiosity 
the  aim  of  science;  erudition  is  useful  as  a  means.  We 
adore  God  by  knowing.  (Chapter  VII.)  Philology  is  not 
simply  a  form  of  erudition,  though  erudition  is  needed: 
Philology  is  the  science  of  humanity,  of  the  human  spirit, 
not  abstract,  but  based  on  patient  critical  study  of  facts, 
requiring  finesse  rather  than  logic.  (Chapter  VIII.)  A 
critical  philosophy  into  which  all  sciences  shall  enter  will 
study  human  origins  and  constitute  the  real  science  of  hu- 
manity. (Chapter  IX.)  It  will  study  embryogeny,  the  child 
and  the  savage,  primitive  productivity  and  the  laws  of  crea- 
tion and  progress.  Philology  is  the  only  means  of  studying 
race  psychology,  which  is  not  a  group  of  pigeonholes  but  a 
becoming.  "We  must  realize  the  spirit  of  each  age  and  cher- 
ish historical  admiration,  for,  though  great  men  play  their 
part,  humanity  is  the  great  author,  and  a  mere  discussion 
of  literary  faults  is  absurd.  (Chapter  X.)  Philology  is 
not  simply  a  means  of  culture,  though  we  French  must  study 
Latin  for  a  comprehension  of  analytical  and  synthetic  lan- 
guages. (Chapter  XI.)  The  minute  investigations  of  phi- 
lology are  like  those  of  natural  science ;  in  the  future,  works 
of  genius  will  be  reduced  to  a  few  pages  and  literary  history 
will  take  the  place  of  reading  the  originals.  Happy  the 
classics,  though  the  moderns  are  just  as  good.  (Chapter 
XII. )  Specialization  and  monographs,  valuable  only  in  view 
of  later  generalizations,  are  the  task  of  the  present.  The 
products  are  so  vast  that  a  scientific  workshop  is  needed. 
(Chapter  XIII.)  The  state  should  patronize,  but  not  con- 
trol, science,  giving  it  what  was  previously  given  to  religion, 
but  the  compensation  must  not  be  large  enough  to  attract 
self -seekers.  (Chapter  XIV.)  Critical  philosophy  shows 
two  stages  in  humanity,  primitive  spontaneity  and  the  age 

100 


THE  FUTURE  OF  SCIENCE 

of  reflection,  revealed  by  the  detailed  comparative  study  of 
languages  and  religions,  a  study  in  which  all  human  works 
must  be  treated  without  distinction  of  sacred  and  profane. 
We  find  two  sorts  of  religions,  those  with  and  those  without 
sacred  books.  (Chapter  XV.)  There  are  three  epochs  in  hu- 
man progress  toward  perfection:  Syncretism,  a  confused 
unity;  Analysis,  the  distinction  of  parts,  and  SjTithesis,  a 
combination  of  these  parts  into  a  new  unity,  which  is  God. 
(Chapter  XVI.)  The  new  belief  is  satisfying,  but  is  deficient 
in  that  it  is  for  the  few.  We  must  open  the  eyes  of  all,  for 
men  must  advance  even  if  they  suffer  for  it.  Brutal  force 
and  revolutions  will  solve  problems,  thousands  will  perish, 
but  at  length  paradise  will  be  established  here  below.  So- 
ciety and  the  State  must  elevate  and  educate,  not  suppress, 
for  all  social  evil  springs  from  lack  of  culture.  Universal 
suffrage  and  liberalism  are  dangerous  for  the  ignorant.  The 
only  divine  right  is  reason,  not  majorities.  The  ideal  gov- 
ernment would  be  a  scientific  government.  At  present  we 
halt  between  two  dogmatisms,  but  liberty  is  not  needed  for 
new  ideas,  which  have  always  made  their  way  in  spite  of 
persecution.  (Chapter  XVII.)  The  aim  being  the  highest 
human  culture, — that  is,  the  most  perfect  religion, — society 
owes  the  individual  the  possibility  of  life.  The  Socialist 
solution  is  imperfect,  for  the  aim  of  life  is  not  well-being  or 
pleasure,  but  perfection.  Rights  are  not  absolute,  but  be- 
come, and  must  be  won  at  the  sacrifice  of  some  for  the  good 
of  all.  Absolute  equality  is  impossible  in  any  unity,  and 
it  is  not  the  individual,  but  humanity  that  must  become  per- 
fect: and  humanity  itself  is  but  a  part  of  a  larger  whole. 
(Chapter  XVIII.)  The  destruction  of  modern  ci\'ilization 
by  barbarians  is  improbable;  the  modern  spirit  has  come 
to  stay:  even  Rome  might  conceivably  have  tamed  the  bar- 
barians, who  returned  ultimately  to  Roman  culture.  We  will 
civilize  our  barbarians  by  giving  to  all  the  intellectual  life. 
While  not  now  practicable,  there  may  some  day  come  a  coni- 

101 


ERNEST  RENAN 

bination  of  high  culture  and  manual  labor,  and  all  may  be 
scholars.  If  this  is  a  chimera,  such  hopes  yet  lead  humanity 
on.  (Chapter  XIX.)  The  science  for  the  masses  must  not 
be  *  *  popular  science, ' '  which  is  not  true  science.  The  popu- 
lace must  be  elevated,  not  science  degraded.  Plutocracy  is 
an  enemy  of  the  ideal  and  wealth  must  come  to  be  regarded 
as  insignificant.  (Chapter  XX.)  Revolutions  are  favorable 
to  science,  for  chaos  is  productive,  and  crises  give  birth 
to  both  sublimities  and  follies.  The  aim  is  not  repose,  but 
perfection.  (Chapter  XXI.)  The  aim  of  this  book  is  to 
present  faith  in  reason  and  in  human  nature.  Some  mock 
us,  others  flee  to  the  accepted  beliefs.  Mockery  is  good 
for  nothing  and,  while  the  simple  faith  of  the  peasant 
is  admirable,  the  conventional  creed  of  gilded  catholic  youth 
is  contemptible.  There  will  come  a  century  dogmatic  through 
science,  not  narrow,  but  critically  dogmatic.  The  critic  is 
eclectic,  sees  truth  in  all  human  systems,  embraces  all.  The 
real  revolution  will  be,  not  political,  but  moral  and  re- 
ligious, conducted  by  men  of  thought.  Science  must  take 
hold.  (Chapter  XXII.)  The  heroes  will  be,  not  kings  and 
generals,  but  philosophers.  Thought  has  led  even  con- 
querors. There  are  two  parts  of  life,  the  religious  and  the 
profane,  but  the  religious  is  the  whole,  the  grand  unity  of 
life,  a  necessity  of  our  nature.  The  word  God  is  still  to 
be  used,  interpreted  by  each  in  his  own  way :  it  is  the  cate- 
gory of  the  ideal,  the  innate  cause  of  adoration.  Not  the 
dogmatic,  but  those  who  take  life  seriously,  are  the  religious ; 
yet  for  the  majority  it  is  the  established  cult  that  represents 
the  ideal.  For  the  people,  the  temples ;  for  us,  science.  We 
are  looked  upon  as  impious;  it  is  a  grief,  but  we  cannot 
help  it.  And  so,  in  conclusion,  still  adoring,  Renan  bids 
farewell  to  the  God  of  his  youth. 


102 


THE  FUTURE  OF  SCIENCE 

III 

This  brief  abstract,  giving  imperfectly  even  the  thread 
of  the  argument,  is  entirely  inadequate  to  render  the  im- 
pression one  receives — and  this  impression  is  an  essential 
feature  of  Renan's  thinking — that  every  idea  advanced  is  a 
part  or  a  phase  of  every  other  idea.  Whatever  the  topic 
of  any  page  may  be,  it  is  sure  to  be  brought  into  relation 
with  a  group  of  constantly  recurring  motives — the  ideal, 
science,  humanity,  progress,  perfection,  the  unity  of  all 
things,  the  infinite.  The  fundamental  ideas  of  Renan  flow 
in  and  out  of  one  another  in  such  varied  cross  currents 
that  it  is  impossible  to  distinguish  which  is  the  source  and 
which  the  derivative.  There  are  no  fixed  channels,  no  sepa- 
rating dikes,  only  a  general  movement  away  from  restriction 
into  freedom.  This  freedom  is  limited  only  by  the  bounds 
of  human  capacity,  man  being  localized  in  space  and  time 
and  developed  to  a  stage  far  short  of  perfection.  "With 
these  limitations  Renan  looks  out  upon  the  world  about  him 
and  perceives  that,  like  himself,  it  is  not  fixed  and  stable, 
but  in  a  condition  of  becoming.  The  stars  in  their  courses, 
land  and  sea,  plants  and  sentient  creatures,  man,  in  whom, 
so  far  as  we  know,  the  universe  first  becomes  conscious  of 
itself,  are  all  moving  forward  toward  some  unknown,  in- 
finite perfection.  This  movement  is  the  evolution  of  God, 
and  the  contemplation  of  it,  instinctive  in  the  uncultured, 
narrowed  by  dogma  in  the  theological,  free  and  elevated  in 
the  devotees  of  divine  philosophy,  constitutes  the  ideal, 
which  is  but  another  term  for  religion. 

Renan's  hatred  of  indifference  and  frivolity,  as  well  as 
of  industrialism,  springs  from  his  devotion  to  ideas.  His 
aversion  to  the  salon  and  the  school  is  caused  by  the  super- 
ficial artificiality  of  the  one  and  the  lifeless  pedantry  of 
the  other.    Those  who  are  not  serious  irritate  him.    To  the 

103 


ERNEST  RENAN 

industrialist  he  prefers  the  fanatic,  because  the  fanatic  is 
governed  by  an  idea  instead  of  by  material  interests.  Ex- 
treme asceticism  is  often  a  subject  of  admiration,  and  even 
the  sacrifice  before  the  Juggernaut  is  defended  as  a  moral 
force,  though  in  excess.  Yet,  from  another  angle,  asceticism 
is  blamed  as  ascribing  overmuch  importance  to  the  things 
of  which  we  deprive  ourselves.  "We  should  live  the  life  of 
the  spirit  so  energetically  that  gross  and  sensual  temptations 
have  no  meaning.  In  themselves,  external  objects  are  in- 
different. "Things  have  value  only  according  to  what  hu- 
manity sees  in  them,  the  sentiments  attached  to  them,  the 
symbols  drawn  from  them."     (P.  190.) 

No  thought  or  feeling  is  more  permanent  and  pervasive 
in  Kenan's  philosophy  and  more  firmly  rooted  in  his  char- 
acter than  his  exaltation  of  the  ideal  and  his  aversion  and 
contempt  for  the  practical.  This  racial  and  inherited  trait 
was  reenf orced,  as  we  have  seen,  by  his  education ;  and  here, 
as  in  other  cases,  he  found  arguments  to  justify  his  instincts. 
The  ideal  life  is  the  life  of  ideas  and  sentiments,  in  contrast 
with  the  life  of  material  satisfactions;  it  is  the  higher  life, 
the  disinterested  life,  as  distinguished  from  the  life  of 
self-interest  and  pleasure;  it  is  devotion  to  the  divine,  the 
infinite,  in  other  words,  to  *  *  God  himself,  touched,  perceived, 
felt  under  his  thousand  forms,  by  the  understanding  of  all 
that  is  true  and  the  love  of  all  that  is  beautiful."  (P.  7.) 
Even  the  narrowest  asceticism  is  preferable  to  blatant  ego- 
tism, though  the  true  idealist  of  to-day  is  the  man  of  science 
who  devotes  himself,  not  to  practical  utility,  but  to  enlight- 
enment. For  utility  is  the  opposite  of  the  ideal,  and  indus- 
trialism is  the  archfoe  of  the  soul.  Bread  is  indeed  neces- 
sary, and  a  moderate  supply  of  vulgar  accessories  may  be 
helpful  to  the  philosopher,  but  to  seek  riches  is  to  substitute 
the  means  for  the  end.  The  aim  of  humanity  is  not  repose, 
well-being,  wealth  or  pleasure,  but  intellectual  and  moral 
perfection. 

104 


THE  FUTURE  OP  SCIENCE 

Heroes  of  the  disinterested  life!  [he  cries]  Saints,  apostles, 
mounis,  hermits,  cenobites,  ascetics  of  all  countries,  sublime  poets 
and  philosophers,  who  wished  no  heritage  here  below;  sages  who 
went  through  life  with  the  left  eye  fixed  on  earth  and  the  right 
eye  on  heaven,  and  thee,  above  all,  divine  Spinoza,  who  remained 
poor  and  forgotten  for  the  worship  of  thy  thought  and  the  un- 
impeded adoration  of  the  infinite,  how  much  better  have  you 
understood  life  than  those  who  take  it  as  a  narrow  calculation 
of  self-interest,  as  an  insignificant  struggle  of  ambition  or  van- 
ity! It  would  doubtless  have  been  better  not  to  have  withdrawn 
your  God  so  far,  not  to  have  placed  him  in  those  cloudy  heights 
which  required  for  the  contemplation  of  him  such  a  tenuous  posi- 
tion. God  is  not  only  in  heaven,  he  is  near  each  of  us;  he  is  in 
the  flower  you  tread  upon,  in  tlie  breeze  that  blows  upon  you,  in 
the  tiny  life  that  buzzes  and  murmurs  everywhere,  above  all,  in 
your  own  heart.  But  how  much  more  do  I  find  in  your  sublime 
follies  the  suprasensible  needs  and  instincts  of  humanity,  than  in 
those  pale  existences  tl\at  the^ray  of  the  ideal  has  never  traversed, 
who,  from  their  first  moment  to  their  last,  have  unfolded  day 
by  day,  exact  and  methodical,  like  the  pages  of  a  ledger!  (Pp. 
84,  85.) 

These  heroes  of  the  disinterested  life  have  one  aspect  of 
the  true  religion.  It  is  not  belief,  but  faith ;  not  a  collection 
of  traditional  doctrines  and  practices,  but  enthusiasm,  de- 
votion, sacrifice,  lofty  and  divine  emotion.  Intellectual  cul- 
ture in  the  highest  sense — art,  science,  literature,  philosophy 
— is  of  the  soul  and  therefore  holy;  but  for  those  not  yet 
capable  of  such  culture,  for  the  disinherited  of  the  world 
bent  under  heavy  daily  toil,  the  Church,  with  its  festivals, 
its  saints,  its  gorgeous  temples,  its  consoling  liturgies,  is 
still  the  essential  medium  of  religious  feeling.  In  these 
simple  souls  the  divine  is  still  in  its  instinctive  stage,  almost 
untouched  by  reflection.  To  a  certain  extent  they  corre- 
spond to  the  epoch  of  syncretism  in  the  life  of  humanity, 
an  epoch  marked  by  a  general  confused  view  of  the  whole. 
The  skeptics  represent  the  second  stage,  which  is  confined 
to  a  distinct  analytic  view  of  the  parts.  The  true  philos- 
opher will,  with  a  sufficient  knowledge  of  the  parts,  con- 

105 


ERNEST  RENAN 

sciously  construct  a  synthetic  recomposition  of  the  whole 
and  thus  attain  a  higher  level  of  religious  experience.  For 
the  critical  thinker,  the  old  faith,  now  become  impossible, 
must  be  replaced  by  faith  through  science,  a  science  that 
looks  upon  the  whole  universe  and  perceives  under  the 
diversified  phenomena  presented  to  the  view  a  unity  of  sub- 
stance, which  is  God.  Science  will  thus  tear  down  the  fixed 
boundaries  set  up  by  dogma;  it  will  look  on  every  face  of 
things  and,  for  God,  the  soul,  the  moral  life,  it  will  have 
many  varied  and  flexible  formulas  in  place  of  the  exact,  and 
therefore  false  phrases  which  senselessly  attempt  to  define' 
and  limit  the  infinite. 

Science,  then,  is  to  take  the  place  of  religion,  for  "per- 
fection is  impossible  without  science"  and  "the  way  to 
adore  God  is  to  know  and  love  what  exists."  (P.  126.) 
Science  alone  can  furnish  vital  truths.  "If  it  could  be 
supposed  that  these  truths  could  spring  from  anything  but 
the  patient  study  of  things,  the  higher  science  would  have 
no  meaning;  there  would  be  erudition,  curiosity  of  the  ama- 
teur, but  not  science  in  the  noble  sense  of  the  word."  (P. 
38.)  Nor  is  such  science  utilitarian;  nor  is  it  metaphysics, 
or  mere  good  sense :  it  is  the  result  of  a  universal  experiment 
with  life. 


When  I  question  myself  on  the  most  important  and  most  defi- 
nitely acquired  articles  of  my  scientific  symbol,  I  put  in  the 
first  rank  my  ideas  on  the  constitution  and  mode  of  government 
of  the  universe,  on  the  essence  of  life,  its  development  and  the 
nature  of  its  phenomena;  on  the  substantial  basis  of  things  and 
its  eternal  delimitation  in  passing  forms,  on  the  appearance  of 
humanity,  the  primitive  facts  of  its  history,  the  laws  of  its 
progress,  its  aim  and  its  end ;  on  the  meaning  and  value  of  esthetic 
and  moral  elements,  on  the  right  of  all  beings  to  enlightenment 
and  perfection,  on  the  eternal  beauty  of  human  nature  blooming 
toward  all  points  of  space  and  time  in  immortal  poems  (religions, 
art,  temples,  myths,  virtues,  science,  philosophy,  etc.) ;  finally  on 
the  portion  of  the  divine  which  is  in  everything,  which  constitutes 

106 


THE  FUTURE  OF  SCIENCE 

the   right    to   exist,   and    which,    properly   expressed,   constitutes 
beauty.     (P.  147.) 


Having  lost  his  belief  in  the  teachings  of  revealed  religion, 
Renan  turned  to  the  universe,  and  particularly  to  humanity, 
to  seek  a  new  religion  by  means  of  rational  research. 

The  first  effect  of  rational  research  is  the  removal  of  arti- 
ficial limits  and  the  enlargement  of  the  horizon.  The  world 
of  ideas  becomes  fluid,  instead  of  standing  as  a  resisting  solid 
mass.  The  essential  difference  between  the  religious  re- 
sults of  science  and  those  of  orthodoxy  is  that  every  con- 
ception, instead  of  being  sharply  outlined,  spreads  out  into 
the  vague  and  the  undefined,  and  that  every  dogma,  instead 
of  professing  itself  the  final  expression  of  a  complete  truth, 
becomes  an  approximate  statement  of  perceptions  that  are 
recognized  as  partial  and  subject  to  variation. 

God,  for  example,  is  no  anthropomorphic  personality.  To 
say  he  is  spirit  is  meaningless,  and  to  say  he  is  wise  and 
good  is  limiting  the  notion  almost  as  much  as  to  say  he  has 
hands  or  feet.  As  the  soul  is  the  individual  becaming,  so 
God  is  the  universal  becoming.  (P.  181.)  God  exists  in  all 
things,  or  rather  is  the  sum  of  all  things,  grows  conscious 
in  humanity,  and  is  subject  to  evolution  toward  the  perfect. 
It  is  the  task  of  reason  to  take  in  hand  the  work  hitherto 
accomplished  by  blind  tendency  and,  after  having  scientifi- 
cally organized  humanity,  to  organize  God.  (P.  37.)  The 
simplest  act  of  intelligence  involves  the  perception  of  God, 
for  it  involves  the  perception  of  being  and  of  the  infinite. 
This  is  innate.  Though  dulled  by  vulgar  facts,  the  infinite 
is  in  all  our  faculties.  Behind  the  visible,  man  finds  the 
invisible,  and  the  belief  in  something  beyond  the  finite  is 
univei-sal.  (P.  478.)  Argument  on  the  subject  is  futile. 
"If  youlr  faculties,  resounding  simultaneously,  have  never 
given  out  that  great,  unique  tone  that  we  call  God,  I  have 
nothing  more  to  say  to  you :    You  lack  the  essential  and  char- 

107 


ERNEST  RENAN 

acteristic  element  of  our  nature."     (P.  475.)     But  why  not 
call  this  vague  idea  by  some  other  name? 

The  word  God,  being  in  possession  of  the  respect  of  mankind, 
having  a  long  right  of  prescription,  and  having  been  used  in 
beautiful  poetry,  to  suppress  it  would  be  to  lead  mankind  astray. 
.  .  .  God,  providence,  soul,  so  many  good  old  words,  a  little 
heavy,  but  expressive  and  respectable,  that  science  will  explain 
but  can  never  replace  to  advantage.  What  is  God  to  mankind,  if 
not  the  transcendant  resume  of  its  suprasensible  needs,  the  cate- 
gory of  the  ideal,  that  is  to  say,  the  fonn  under  which  we  conceive 
the  ideal,  as  space  and  time  are  the  categories,  that  is  to  say,  the 
form  under  which  we  conceive  bodies?  All  is  reduced  to  this  fact 
of  human  nature:  Man  in  face  of  the  divine  comes  out  of  him- 
self, is  suspended  by  a  celestial  charm,  annihilates  his  miserable 
pereonality,  is  exalted,  absorbed.  What  is  this  but  adoration? 
(P.  476.) 

Thus  the  anthropomorphic  limits  are  removed  from  the 
idea  of  God ;  no  less  are  they  removed  from  the  idea  of  Provi- 
dence. To  Renan  the  will  of  God  is  replaced  by  natural 
law,  the  world-machine  by  living  forces.  ''The  formation 
and  preservation  of  the  different  planetary  systems,  the 
appearance  of  organized  beings  and  of  life,  of  man  and 
of  consciousness,  the  first  facts  of  humanity,  these  are  but 
the  development  of  a  collection  of  physical  and  psychological 
laws  established  once  for  all,  and  the  superior  agent  who 
models  his  activity  within  these  laws  has  never  interposed 
his  will  with  any  special  intention  in  the  mechanism  of 
things.  (Pp.  169,  170.)  Bossuet  conceived  history  as  the 
unrolling  of  a  particular  plan  in  which  God  assigned  to 
this  individual  or  tio  that  nation  a  definite  task  to  be  ae- 
complished  toward  the  working  out  of  the  general  purpose. 
The  divine  power  constantly  interfered  to  aid  those  who 
were  carrying  on  the  scheme  and  to  confound  their  oppo- 
nents. In  Renan 's  view,  on  the  conti-ary,  history  merely 
displayed  a  spontaneous  tendency  toward  an  ideal  aim, 
toward  perfection,  a  movement  produced  by  an  active,  liv- 

108 


THE  FUTURE  OF  SCIENCE 

ing  force  in  things  and  without  any  external  help,  "Per- 
fect autonomy,  self-creation, — in  a  word,  life — ^such  is  the 
law  of  humanity."     (P.  173.) 

When  the  supernatural  is  thus  banished  from  history,  it 
is  banished  from  the  lives  of  saints  and  prophets ;  Jesus,  a 
son  of  God,  if  you  choose,  becomes  a  natural  human  phe- 
nomenon, and  all  sacred  books  are  mere  examples  of  primi- 
tive literature.  Revelation  must  yield  to  investigation,  ar- 
bitrary tenets  to  reality.  Christian  asceticism,  admirable  as 
it  is  in  its  high-mindedness,  is  pronounced  narrow  because 
it  regards  the  good  as  consisting  in  obedience  to  imposed 
rules,  and  because  it  mutilates  human  nature  by  excluding 
the  true  and  the  beautiful.  Exclusion  is  indeed  the  besetting 
sin  of  orthodoxy.  "The  first  philosophical  victory  of  my 
youth,"  says  Renan,  "was  to  proclaim  from  the  depths  of 
my  consciousness:  *A11  that  is  of  the  soul  is  sacred.'  "  (P. 
9.)  Moral  sentiments  should  replace  the  sacraments.  The 
spirit  is  all ;  positive  dogma  insignificant.  In  contrast  with 
theology,  science  has  no  creed,  its  principles  being  nothing 
but  a  way  of  looking  at  things.  For  those  who  have  no 
science,  indeed,  the  established  cult  continues  to  represent 
the  ideal  part  in  human  affairs;  but  the  ;nind  aspiring  to 
high  reflective  culture  must  free  itself  of  Catholicism,  a 
shell  that  the  living  creature  has  outgrown,  but  that  still 
retains  the  contours  of  the  vanished  life. 

The  study  of  this  shell,  and  of  other  similar  shells,  politi- 
cal, philosophical,  literary,  is  valuable,  not  because  it  gives 
curious  information  about  certain  convolutions,  which  is 
mere  erudition,  but  because  it  reveals  the  secrets  of  the 
life  that  wrought  them,  which  is  critical  philosophy.  The 
subject  of  such  study  is  the  science  of  humanity,  and  its 
chief  instrument  is  philology,  the  exact  science  of  the  things 
of  the  spirit.  "The  true  philologist  should  be  at  once  lin- 
guist, historian,  archaeologist,  artist  and  philosopher."  (P. 
130.)     Erudition,  to  be  sure,  he  must  possess,  not  for  its 

109 


ERNEST  RENAN 

own  sake,  but  as  a  prerequisite  to  the  history  of  the  human 
spirit.  ''The  science  of  the  human  spirit  ought  above  all 
to  be  the  history  of  the  human  spirit,  and  this  history  is 
only  possible  through  the  patient  philological  study  of  the 
works  that  this  spirit  has  produced  in  its  different  epochs" 
(Dedication,  p.  5),  for  "History  is  the  necessary  form  of 
the  science  of  all  that  is  in  the  state  of  becormng"  (p. 
174).  As  a  result  of  modern  critical  scholarship,  there  is 
seen  in  humanity  a  self-developing  consciousness  from  the 
spontaneous  workings  of  instinct,  through  reason  and  re- 
flection, to  some  still  unperceived,  but  surely  more  perfect 
future.  As  represented  in  works  of  the  mind,  the  primitive 
stage  is  that  of  syncretism,  a  general  confused  view  of  the 
whole,  comprehensive,  but  obscure  and  inexact;  this  is  fol- 
lowed by  analysis,  a  distinct  view  of  the  parts,  partial,  ex- 
act, uncreative,  negative,  skeptical;  and  finally  will  appear 
synthesis,  a  recomposition  of  the  whole  with  distinct  knowl- 
edge of  the  parts,  a  restoration  of  unity  by  the  combining 
force  of  intelligence.  "All  is  noble  in  view  of  the  great 
definitive  science,  in  which  poetry,  religion,  science,  morals 
will  again  find  their  harmony  in  complete  reflection.  The 
primitive  age  was  religious  but  not  scientific;  the  interme- 
diate age  will  have  been  irreligious  but  scientific;  the  last 
age  will  be  at  once  religious  and  scientific.  Then  there  will 
be  a  new  Orpheus  and  a  new  Trismegistus,  no  longer  to  sing 
their  ingenious  dreams  to  an  infant  people,  but  to  teach 
humanity  grown  wise  the  marvels  of  reality."    (P.  308.) 

The  science  that  is  to  take  the  place  of  religion  must 
be  ideal,  and  not  practical  science.  But,  though  not  prac- 
tical in  the  ordinary  sense,  it  must  nevertheless  be  applied, 
as  has  hitherto  been  the  case  with  religion,  to  the  reorgani- 
zation of  society.  It  should  therefore  receive  from  the 
state  the  support  previously  granted  to  the  church.  There 
should  be  established  lay  chapters,  lay  benefices,  lay  monas- 
tic orders,  for  the  maintenance  of  critical  Benedictines,  of 

110 


THE  FUTURE  OF  SCIENCE 

scholars  who  have  renounced  the  worldly  life.  Thus  science, 
its  pedagogical  bane  removed,  would  have  its  priests  and 
saints,  who  would  labor  to  advance  knowledge  and  to  make 
the  present  life,  "the  theater  of  that  perfect  life  that  Chris- 
tianity places  in  the  beyond."  "There  is  nothing  exag- 
gerated in  the  spiritualism  of  the  Gospel,  nor  in  the  exclusive 
preponderance  it  assigns  to  the  higher  life.  But  it  is  here 
below,  and  not  in  a  fantastic  heaven,  that  the  life  of  the 
spirit  is  to  be  realized."  (P.  81.)  The  future  will  say: 
"We  hold  God  quit  of  his  paradise  since  celestial  life  is 
brought  here  below."  (P,  406.)  The  pagans  of  the  new 
age  will  be  the  orthodox.  The  real  skeptics  are  those  who 
deny  the  modern  spirit,  and  the  atheists  are  the  indifferent, 
the  superficial  and  the  frivolous. 

Such  are  the  main  ideas  underlying  the  various  reflec- 
tions embodied  in  The  Future  of  Science,  ideas  which  re- 
mained practically  unchanged  to  the  end.  "When  Renan 
wrote  the  preface  in  1890,  his  religion  w^as  still  "the  progress 
of  reason,  that  is  to  say,  of  science " :  He  still  believed  that 
nothing  is  created,  but  that  everything  becomes,  accord- 
ing to  a  design  that  we  see  obscurely,  an  immense  develop- 
ment, the  first  links  of  which  are  given  by  cosmological 
science,  and  the  last  by  history.  His  chief  youthful  illusion 
had  been  an  exaggerated  optimism. 

IV 

The  buoyant  fervor,  the  unabashed  self-assurance,  the 
eager  seriousness  of  The  Future  of  Science,  characterize  the 
period  of  its  production.  To  this  youth  nothing  is  more 
important  than  the  search  for  truth.  "Science  and  science 
alone  can  give  to  humanity  that  without  which  it  cannot 
live,  a  symbol  and  a  law.'*  (P.  31.)  "Science  is  thus  a  re- 
ligion; science  alone  will  henceforth  construct  the  symbols; 
science  alone  can  solve  for  m.an  the  eternal  problems  the 


ERNEST  RENAN 

solution  of  which  his  nature  imperatively  demands."  (P. 
108.)  This  science  is  no  a^eeable  pastime,  no  ornament 
of  the  salon,  no  mummy  for  the  museum.  *  *  Science  becomes 
degraded  the  moment  it  lowers  itself  to  please,  to  amuse, 
to  interest,  the  moment  it  ceases  to  correspond  directly,  like 
poetry,  music,  religion,  to  a  disinterested  need  of  human 
nature.*'  (P.  413.)  The  scholar  amusing  himself  learn- 
edly leads  a  vain  existence.  "To  live  is  not  to  glide  over 
an  agreeable  surface  or  play  with  the  world  for  amusement ; 
it  is  to  accomplish  many  noble  things,  to  be  the  traveling 
companion  of  the  stars,  to  know,  to  hope,  to  love,  to  ad- 
mire, to  do  good.  That  man  has  most  lived  who  by  mind, 
heart  and  act,  has  most  adored."  (P.  123.)  Surely  it  is 
a  very  strenuous  young  man  who  is  thus  preaching  to  the 
world. 

God  grant  that  I  may  have  brought  some  beautiful  souls  to 
understand  that  there  is  in  the  pure  worship  of  the  human  facul- 
ties and  the  divine  objects  they  reach  a  religion  just  as  suave, 
just  as  rich  in  delights  as  the  most  venerable  cults.  I  tasted  in 
my  childhood  and  in  my  early  youth  the  purest  joys  of  the  be- 
liever, and  I  say  from  the  bottom  of  my  soul,  these  joys  were  as 
nothing  compared  with  those  I  have  felt  in  the  pure  contempla- 
tion of  the  beautiful  and  in  the  passionate  search  of  the  true. 
I  wish  for  all  my  brothers  who  have  remained  orthodox  a  peace 
comparable  to  that  in  which  I  have  lived  since  my  struggle  ended 
and  the  pacified  tempest  has  left  me  in  the  midst  of  this  great 
calm  ocean,  a  sea  without  waves  or  shores,  where  the  only  lode- 
star is  reason  and  the  only  compass  is  the  heart.    (P.  318.) 

The  lodestar  is  reason,  not  logic:  for  in  the  sciences  of 
humanity  logical  argumentation  is  nothing,  and  finesse  of 
mind  everything. 

In  reasoning  logically  one  may  in  the  moral  sciences  reach 
absolutely  false  conclusions  from  sufiiciently  true  premises.  .  .  . 
When  our  logic  leads  to  extreme  consequences,  have  no  fear:  for 
facts  delicately  perceived  are  here  the  only  criterion  of  truth. 
(P.  153.)    Logic,  understood  as  the  analysis  of  reason,  is  but  a 

112 


THE  FUTURE  OF  SCIENCE 

branch  of  psychology;  looked  upon  as  a  collection  of  procedures 
to  conduct  the  mind  to  the  discovery  of  truth,  it  is  entirely  useless, 
since  it  is  not  possible  to  give  recipes  for  finding  truth.  Delicate 
culture  and  the  multiple  exercise  of  the  mind  are  from  this  point 
of  view  the  only  legitimate  logic.     (P.  155.) 

Conceptions  reached  by  such  culture  are  freer  and  at  bot- 
tom more  exact  in  their  vagueness  than  rigorous  definitions 
and  precisely  limited  propositions.  The  supernatural,  for 
example,  is  not  a  question  for  argument;  its  negation  re- 
sults from  the  ensemble  of  modern  science.  "What  con- 
verts is  science,  philology,  the  wide  and  comparative  view 
of  things,  in  a  word,  the  modern  spirit.  .  .  .  The  results  of 
criticism  are  not  praved,  they  are  perceived;  they  require 
for  understanding  a  long  exercise  and  culture  in  finesse." 
(P.  298.)  It  is  not  the  function  of  philosophy  to  answer 
particular  questions.  Instead  of  proving  positive  state- 
ments, it  insinuates  a  spirit,  inoculates  a  new  sense.  The 
truths  of  criticism  it  is  almost  impossible  to  communicate. 
In  such  matters,  minds  must  be  led  to  the  same  point  of 
view,  so  that  they  will  see  the  same  face  of  things.  "I  am 
persuaded  that,  if  minds  cultivated  by  rational  science  / 
should  question  themselves,  they  would  find  that,  without 
formulating  any  proposition  susceptible  of  being  phrased, 
they  would  have  views  on  vital  matters  sufficiently  fixed, 
and  that  those  views,  diversely  expressed  by  each,  would 
come  to  about  the  same  thing,"  (P.  60.)  Kenan's  ra- 
tionalism is  "the  recognition  of  human  nature,  consecrated 
in  all  its  parts;  it  is  the  simultaneous  and  harmonious  use 
of  all  the  faculties;  it  is  the  exclusion  of  all  exclusion." 
(P.  66.) 

As  this  point  of  view  is  essential  to  an  understanding  of 
Renan,  an  understanding  in  which  many  of  his  critics  have 
sadly  failed,  some  further  passages  may  be  quoted: 

We  equally  reject  frivolous  skepticism  and  scholastic  dog- 
matism; we  are  critical  dogmatists.    We  believe  in  truth,  although 

113 


ERNEST  RENAN 

we  do  not  pretend  to  possess  absolute  truth.  We  do  not  wish  to 
shut  humanity  up  forever  in  our  formulas:  but  we  are  religious 
in  so  far  as  we  are  firmly  attached  to  the  belief  of  the  present  and 
are  ready  to  suffer  in  view  of  the  future.  Enthusiasm  and  criti- 
cism are  far  from  being  mutually  exclusive.  We  do  not  impose 
ourselves  on  the  future,  any  more  than  we  accept  the  heritage  of 
the  past  without  control.  We  aspire  to  that  high  philosophic 
impartiality  that  attaches  itself  exclusively  to  no  party,  not  be- 
cause it  is  indifferent,  but  because  it  sees  in  each  a  portion  of 
truth  alongside  of  a  portion  of  error;  an  impartiality  that  has 
neither  exclusion  nor  hate  for  any  one,  because  it  sees  the  necessity 
of  all  these  various  groupings  and  the  right  that  each  of  them 
has,  by  virtue  of  the  truth  it  possesses,  to  make  its  appearance 
in  the  world.     (P.  445.) 

"I  see  the  sea,  rocks,  islands,"  says  he  who  looks  out  of  the  north- 
em  windows.  "I  see  the  trees,  fields,  meadows,"  says  he  who  looks 
to  the  south.  It  would  be  wrong  for  them  to  dispute;  they  are 
both  right.     (Note  30.) 

When  we  find  Renan  in  one  passage  maintaining  that  men 
of  thought  and  not  men  of  action  are  the  motive  force  in 
revolutions,  and  in  another  passage  proclaiming  that  think- 
ers are  impotent  and  that  the  masses  are  moved  only  by 
one-sided  partisans  and  narrow-minded  fanatics,  we  feel 
that  he  has  turned  away  from  the  north  window  to  gaze 
toward  the  south.  Often,  indeed,  a  single  view  offends  him 
by  its  lack  of  completeness.  Spiritual  extravagance  is  in 
fact  the  only  excess  against  which  he  does  not  react  with 
a  sort  of  irritation,  and  such  a  reaction  always  impels  him 
to  look  out  of  the  opposite  window.  When,  for  example,  he 
sees  patient  erudition  piling  up  minute  details  by  exact  re- 
search, he  is  inclined  to  pay  it  honor  and  to  pour  contempt 
upon  empty  metaphysical  speculations;  but  when  erudition 
in  its  turn  grows  exclusive  and  becomes  the  sole  aim  of 
life,  he  turns  to  the  ideal  standpoint  and  overwhelms  the 
spiritless  pedant  with  vigorous  reprobation.  To  curiosity 
he  denies  moral  value,  but  he  finds  it  useful  as  a  means  of 
progress,    Do^atism  is  the  constant  object  of  his  assaults, 


THE  FUTURE  OF  SCIENCE 

yet  he  prefers  the  narrowest  formulas  of  dogmatism  to 
frivolity.  In  such  cases,  and  in  all  his  other  contradictions, 
he  is  looking  at  the  object  from  a  different  angle.  If  we 
would  understand  Renan,  we  must  always  put  ourselves  at 
the  right  window. 

Renan  thus  gives  us  what  he  sees,  sometimes  looking  in 
one  direction,  sometimes  in  another.  Often  enough  he  speaks 
dogmatically,  but  the  reader  should  not  be  led  astray  by  the 
inevitable  limitations  of  language.  Aware  that  the  author 
is  expressing  only  one  phase  of  his  topic,  we  should  consider 
the  general  lines  of  thought,  not  the  absolute  formula.  We 
are  indeed  specifically  warned  against  such  error:  *'I  beg 
the  reader's  pardon  for  a  multitude  of  partial  and  exag- 
gerated views  that  he  will  not  fail  to  discover  in  the  pre- 
ceding chapters,  and  I  beg  him  to  judge  this  book  not  by 
an  isolated  page,  but  by  its  general  spirit.  The  spirit  can 
be  expressed  only  by  sketching  successively  diverse  points 
of  view,  each  of  which  is  true  only  in  the  ensemble.  A  page 
is  necessarily  false,  for  it  says  but  one  thing,  and  truth  is 
only  a  compromise  amid  an  infinity  of  things."    (P.  433.) 

It  is  the  infinity  of  things,  and  this  infinity  in  constant 
progressive  motion,  that  constitutes  reality.  Of  course  the 
whole,  or  any  vast  amount  of  the  whole,  is  beyond  human 
capacity;  but  the  more  we  free  ourselves  from  mechanical 
limitations,  the  closer  we  approach  to  truth  in  its  living 
freedom,  as  it  actually  is,  and  not  distorted  by  compression 
into  lifeless  forms.  The  attainment  of  this  view  is  the  tri- 
umph of  modern  criticism.  "The  great  progress  made  by 
modern  reflection  has  been  to  substitute  the  category  of 
becoming  for  the  category  of  being,  the  conception  of  the 
relative  for  that  of  the  absolute,  movement  for  immobility. ' ' 
(P.  182.)  The  perception  of  reality  in  the  universal  and 
the  unstable  pervades  Renan 's  thinking  on  every  subject. 
Religion  is  a  human  need;  while  its  forms  are  destined  to 
disappear,  they  will  be  replaced  by  something  else.    Let  U9 

115 


ERNEST  RENAN 

not  be  too  definite.  There  is  a  religious  way  of  taking  things, 
understood  by  "those  who  once  in  their  lives  have  breathed 
the  air  of  the  other  world  and  tasted  the  ideal  nectar."  (P. 
56.)  "All  who  adore  something  are  brothers."  (P.  482.) 
In  morals,  rules  are  a  poor  substitute  for  the  moral  sense, 
for  intimate  spontaneity.  In  literature,  "the  only  rule  is 
to  elevate  your  soul,  to  feel  nobly  and  say  what  you  feel" 
(n.  66) :  praise  and  blame  are  here  evidences  of  a  petty 
method  and  the  idea  fault  should  be  banished  from  the  criti- 
cal vocabulary.  In  science,  the  separate  sciences  are  less  spe- 
cial subjects  than  different  ways  of  looking  at  things.  If 
analysis  had  no  ulterior  aim,  it  would  be  inferior  to  primi- 
tive syncretism,  which  seized  life  whole.  All  our  mechanism 
Is  indeed  a  result  of  spontaneous  action,  but  it  has  become 
petrified.  In  the  primitive  period  the  sacred  book  united 
religion,  science,  poetry,  philosophy,  history,  law  into  some- 
thing that  was  one  and  indivisible.  Religion  was  indeed 
the  whole  of  life.  But  time  and  analysis  separated  the  ex- 
pression of  emotion  from  the  study  of  fact,  abstract  specula- 
tion from  political  maxims,  knowledge  from  worship.  Each 
was  assigned  to  its  own  fenced-off  field,  and  the  intuition  of 
the  infinite  was  fossilized  in  the  forms  of  orthodoxy.  It  is 
the  task  of  the  modem  spirit  to  break  down  the  barriers  and 
to  reunite  all  in  a  harmonious  culture.  If  the  perfect  man 
cannot  be  realized,  he  can  at  least  be  pictured. 

The  perfect  man  would  be  he  who  should  be  at  once  poet,  phi- 
losopher, scholar,  example  of  virtue;  and  this  not  at  intervals  and 
at  separate  moments  (only  a  moderate  approach  indeed  to  per- 
fection), but  through  an  intimate  compenetration  at  every  moment 
of  his  life,  being  poet  at  the  same  time  that  he  is  philosopher, 
philosopher  when  he  is  scholar, — in  a  word,  having  all  the  ele- 
ments of  humanity  united  in  a  higher  harmony,  as  in  humanity 
itself.  (P.  11.)  Man's  end  is  not  simply  to  know,  to  feel,  to 
imagine,  but  to  be  perfect,  that  is  to  say,  to  be  a  man  in  the 
widest  acceptation  of  the  word ;  it  is  to  offer  in  an  individual  type 
an  epitome  of  complete  humanity,  and  to  display  united  in  a 

116 


THE  FUTURE  OF  SCIENCE 

powerful  unity  all  the  faces  of  the  life  that  humanity  has  por- 
trayed in  various  times  and  places.  .  .  .  The  model  of  perfection 
is  given  us  by  humanity  itself;  the  most  perfect  life  is  that  which 
best  represents  humanity  as  a  whole.  (P.  12.)  The  lives  of 
men  of  genius  almost  always  present  the  ravishing  spectacle  of 
vast  intellectual  capacity  joined  with  an  elevated  poetic  sense 
and  a  charming  goodness  of  soul,  so  that  their  lives,  in  their  calm 
and  suave  placidity,  are  almost  always  their  finest  achievement, 
and  form  an  essential  part  of  their  complete  works.  In  truth, 
the  words  poetry,  philosophy,  art,  science,  designate  not  so  much 
the  diverse  objects  of  man's  intellectual  activity,  as  the  different 
ways  of  looking  at  the  same  object,  which  is  being  itself  in  all 
its  manifestations.     (P.  15.) 

It  was  its  unity  and  reality,  quite  as  much  as  its  scientific 
value,  that  attracted  Renan  to  primitive  literature.  Here 
he  found  all  humanity  in  each  of  its  acts.  He  saw  in  the 
period  of  origins  certain  permanent  laws  of  nature  working 
in  special  conditions ;  he  felt  the  prodigious  activity,  the  free 
play  of  energy,  creative  freedom,  caprice,  exuberance,  the 
harmony  between  thought  and  sensation,  man  and  nature, 
the  faculty  of  interpretation,  an  echo  answering  outside 
voices,  a  vision  perceiving  a  thousand  things  at  once,  in  short, 
a  creative  fecundity  attaining  by  its  inward  tension  an 
unpremeditated  result.  "The  child  who  learns  its  language, 
humanity  creating  science,  have  no  more  difficulty  than 
the  plant  that  sprouts  or  the  organic  body  that  reaches  its 
full  development.  Everywhere  it  is  the  hidden  God,  the 
universal  force,  that,  acting  during  sleep  or  in  the  absence 
of  the  individual  soul,  produces  these  marvelous  effects,  as 
far  above  human  artifice  as  infinite  power  surpasses  limited 
forms."     (P.  260.) 

It  might  be  thought  that  the  succeeding  epochs  marked 
a  decadence,  but  decadence  is  seen  only  by  narrow  minds,  re- 
stricted to  a  single  point  of  view.  Humanity's  means  for 
attaining  its  ends  are  inexhaustible ;  when  one  decays,  another 
grows.   If  reflection  has  smothered  spontaneous  instinct,  if 

117 


ERNEST  RENAN 

creative  faculties  become  atrophied  through  inactivity,  the 
power  still  remains  latent  in  man,  ready  to  be  called  forth 
when  there  is  a  void  to  be  filled.  The  force  that  continues  life 
is  at  bottom  the  same  force  that  causes  birth.  Even  if  man 
should  lose  his  language,  he  would  create  a  new  one.  Hu- 
manity tends  unceasingly,  fatally,  though  with  many  oscil- 
lations, toward  a  more  perfect  condition,  through  forces  that 
are  successively  and  diversely  imperfect.  Nothing  can  in- 
terrupt the  march.  Ultimate  triumph  is  assured.  "Often 
humanity  in  its  advance  has  found  itself  stopped  like  an 
army  before  an  impassable  precipice.  The  clever  then  lose 
their  heads,  human  prudence  is  at  bay.  The  wise  want  a 
withdrawal  to  go  around  the  precipice.  But  the  waves  be- 
hind keep  pushing;  the  first  ranks  fall  into  the  gulf,  and 
when  their  corpses  have  filled  the  abyss,  the  last  comers  pass 
evenly  over  them.  Thank  God!  the  abyss  is  traversed!  A 
cross  is  planted  at  the  place  and  tender  hearts  come  there 
to  weep."     (P.  327.) 

Brutal  solutions  are  found  for  impossible  problems.  * '  The 
world  creates  only  in  primitive  periods  and  under  the  reign 
of  chaos."    (P.  422.)    Crises  produce  sublimities  and  follies. 

Those  solemn  moments  when  human  nature,  exalted,  pushed 
to  the  very  limit,  gives  out  the  most  extreme  tones,  are  the  mo- 
ments of  great  revelations.  (P.  424.)  The  new  faith  will  be  bom 
only  under  frightful  storms,  and  when  the  human  spirit  shall  have 
been  subdued,  derailed,  if  I  dare  say  so,  by  events  till  now 
unheard  of.  We  have  not  suffered  enough  to  see  the  kingdom  of 
heaven.  When  several  millions  of  men  shall  have  died  of  hunger, 
when  thousands  shall  have  devoured  one  another,  when  the  heads 
of  others,  led  astray  by  these  deadly  scenes,  shall  be  shot  out  of 
the  ordinary  paths,  then  shall  we  recommence  to  live.  Suffering 
has  been  man's  mistress  and  the  revealer  of  great  things.  Order 
is  an  end,  not  a  beginning.     (P.  426.) 

The  orderly  age  in  which  Renan  had  received  his  edu- 
cation, that  of  the  July  Monarchy,  was  not  at  all  to  his 

118 


THE  FUTURE  OF  SCIENCE 

taste.  Born  under  Mercury,  it  was  marked  by  timidity, 
moral  feebleness,  and  vulgarity  of  outlook.  The  world 
seemed  a  regularly  organized  machine,  producing  enervated 
souls,  whose  ideal  of  life  was  repose.  There  was  nothing 
militant  or  hardy  in  these  peace-lovers.  Politics  was  a  mat- 
ter of  rival  ambitions,  personal  combats  and  intrigues,  agi- 
tation without  principle.  Who  should  be  minister  was  the 
leading  question.  Absorbed  in  administration  and  banished 
from  the  high  regions  of  thought,  the  politician  played  a 
humiliating  role,  in  which  ideas  and  convictions  must  be  an 
invincible  obstacle  to  success. 

Such  complaints  about  the  unedifying  spectacle  of  party 
struggles  are  common  enough.  Doubtless  Renan  was  right, 
for  history  has  pronounced  a  distinctly  unfavorable  judg- 
ment on  the  French  Government  of  this  period.  But  it  is 
not  his  criticism  of  contemporary  politics  that  interests  us 
When  he  deals  with  such  matters  practically  and  in  detail, 
he  is  often  confused,  almost  incoherent:  It  is  his  view  of 
government  from  the  higher  viewpoint  of  humanity  that  is 
significant.  He  sees  in  the  state  a  machine  for  progress; 
government  represents  reason,  God,  humanity ;  the  question 
of  governmental  reform  is  not  political,  but  moral  and  reli- 
gious. Here  we  are  in  the  full  tide  of  the  universal.  The 
only  sovereign  by  divine  right  is  reason.  "To  govern  for 
progress  is  to  govern  by  divine  right."  Such  might  be 
the  sanction  of  a  new  Napoleon.  Who  is  to  judge,  we  are 
not  informed.  Up  to  the  present  time,  indeed,  revolutions 
have  afforded  the  only  means  of  destroying  condemned  in- 
stitutions. Happy  the  age  when  such  irrational  and  absurd 
means  become  unnecessary. 

Obviously  such  notions  are  fit  only  for  criticism,  not  for 
any  practical  application  to  problems  of  the  day ;  and  Renan 
is  already  an  effective  critic.  French  liberalism  he  finds 
superficial,  occupied  exclusively  with  liberty,  the  means 
rather  than  the  end.    This  liberty  is  profitable  only  to  agi- 

119 


ERNEST  BENAN 

tators,  not  to  the  true  progress  of  the  human  spirit.  Until 
the  masses  are  elevated,  to  preach  liberty  is  to  preach  de- 
struction; the  triumph  of  the  people  as  they  are  would  be 
worse  than  that  of  the  Franks  and  Vandals;  universal  suf- 
frage is  legitimate  only  when  all  shall  have  intelligence 
enough  to  deserve  the  name  of  men.  Stupidity  has  no  right 
to  govern  the  world.  The  majority  has  no  right  to  impose 
its  opinion,  unless  it  represents  reason  and  enlightenment. 
A  triumphant  insurrection  is  often  a  better  criterion  of  right 
than  a  numerical  majority,  for  the  ballot  of  battle  measures 
the  energy  an  opinion  lends  to  its  partisans.  On  the  other 
hand,  a  petty  bourgeois  system  of  government,  guaranteeing 
the  rights  and  well-being  of  each,  has  produced  nothing 
great.  Better  the  brilliant  embodiment  of  a  phase  of  hu- 
manity in  the  court  of  Louis  XIV,  or  even  the  monstrous 
structures  of  Ninevah  and  Babylon,  than  sluggish  medi- 
ocrity. The  individual  may  properly  be  sacrificed  that  hu- 
manity may  find  expression,  yet  the  disinherited  excite  sym- 
pathy. Socialism,  in  spite  of  its  absurdities  and  perversi- 
ties, corresponds  to  a  perfectly  legitimate  tendency  of  the 
modern  spirit.  It  is  wrong  in  making  well-being  and  en- 
joyment its  aim,  instead  of  intellectual  advancement.  The 
problem  is  to  conserve  the  conquests  of  civilization,  yet  give 
all  a  share.  All,  indeed,  shall  be  ennobled,  but,  failing  this, 
the  tradition  of  the  beautiful  should  be  maintained  by  an 
elite.  The  oft-repeated  moral  Of  the  entire  discussion  is: 
Elevate  the  masses. 

Kenan's  conception  of  the  progress  of  humanity  involved 
a  diminution  of  the  importance  usually  attached  to  national- 
ity, although  his  feeling  of  patriotism  and  his  love  of  his 
native  province  were  very  strong.  He  considered  the  aim 
of  nature  to  be  enlightened  man,  be  he  French,  English  or 
German.  (Note  79.)  ''What  difference  by  whom  the  work 
of  civilization  and  the  good  of  humanity  is  accomplished? 
In  the  eyes  of  God  and  of  the  future,  Russians  and  French 

120 


THE  FUTURE  OF  SCIENCE 

are  only  men."  (P.  73.)  "Each  nation  is  a  unity,  a  mode 
of  looking  at  life,  a  tone  in  humanity,  a  faculty  of  the  great 
soul."  (P.  175.)  To  destroy  a  nation,  then,  would  be  to 
destroy  an  organ  essential  to  the  constitution  of  the  general 
life.  ''The  perfection  of  humanity  will  consist,  not  in  the 
extinction,  but  in  the  harmony  of  nationalities."  (P.  314.) 
France  eminently  represents  the  analytic,  revolutionary, 
profane,  irreligious  period  of  humanity.  Having  fulfilled 
its  role,  it  may  some  day  disappear  as  an  obstacle  in  the 
path  of  progress.  "To  each  his  task,  such  is  the  law  of 
nature.  France  will  have  been  the  great  revolutionary  in- 
strument ;  will  it  be  equally  powerful  in  rebuilding  religion  ? 
The  future  will  know.  Whatever  may  happen,  it  will  be 
enough  for  its  glory  to  have  sketched  one  facet  of  human- 
ity." (P.  318.)  That  he  could  speak  thus  cahnly  of  the 
extinction  of  France  should  not  surprise  us,  for  he  could 
view  with  equal  calm  the  extinction  of  our  planet.  Hu- 
manity itself  might  perish,  but  the  great  evolution  would 
still  proceed  unchecked,  and  philosophers  would  watch  the 
process  without  agitation.  "If  the  world  should  tumble  to 
pieces,  it  would  still  be  good  to  philosophize,  and  I  am  sure 
that,  if  ever  our  planet  should  fall  victim  of  a  new  cataclysm, 
at  that  awful  moment  there  would  still  be  some  human  souls 
who,  amidst  submersion  and  chaos,  would  entertain  dis- 
interested and  scientific  thoughts,  and  who,  oblivious  of 
imminent  death,  would  discuss  the  phenomenon  and  seek  to 
draw  from  it  conclusions  in  regard  to  the  general  system  of 
things."     (P.  433.) 


A  collection  of  detached  passages  will  perhaps  help  fur- 
ther to  elucidate  Kenan's  social  and  political  views: 

If  your  religion  is  only  for  a  small  number,  if  it  excludes  the 
poor  and  humble,  it  is  not  a  true  religion;  moreover,  it  is  bar- 

121 


EMI5ST  RENAN 

barous  and  immoral,  since  it  banishes  from  the  kingdom  of 
heaven  those  who  are  already  disinherited  from  the  joys  of  earth* 
(P.  319.) 

We  must  labor  to  advance  the  happy  day  when  all  men  will 
have  a  place  in  the  sun  of  intelligence  and  will  be  called  to  the 
true  light  of  the  children  of  God.     (P.  321.) 

For  myself,  I  do  not  understand  perfect  happiness  unless  all 
ai'e  perfect.  I  cannot  imagine  how  the  rich  can  enjoy  their  riches 
while  obliged  to  veil  their  faces  before  the  misery  of  a  part  of 
their  kind.  My  sharpest  pang  is  to  think  that  not  all  can  share 
my  happiness.  There  will  be  no  real  happiness  until  all  shall 
be  equal,  and  there  will  be  no'  equality  till  all  shall  be  perfect. 
What  pain  for  the  savant  and  the  thinker  to  see  themselves  by 
their  excellence  itself  isolated  from  humanity,  having  a  world 
apart,  a  belief  apart.  Are  you  surprised  that  they  are  sometimes 
sad  and  solitary?  If  they  should  possess  the  infinite,  absolute 
truth,  how  they  must  suffer  to  possess  it  alone,  and  how  they  must 
regret  the  vulgar  dreams  that  they  enjoyed  at  least  in  common 
with  all.     (Pp.  323,  324.) 

If  it  were  true  that  humanity  were  so  constituted  that  there 
was  nothing  to  do  for  the  general  good,  if  it  were  true  that  politics 
consisted  in  smothering  the  cries  of  the  unfortunate  and  folding 
one's  arms  over  irremediable  ills,  nothing  could  induce  beautiful 
souls  to  endure  life.  If  the  world  were  made  like  that,  we  should 
have  to  curse  God  and  commit  suicide.     (P.  325.) 

Woe  to  him  who  makes  revolutions;  happy  he  who  inherits 
from  them!  .  .  .  Happy  above  all  those  who,  born  in  a  better 
age,  will  no  longer  need  to  bring  about  the  triumph  of  reason  by 
the  most  irrational  and  absurd  means!  The  moral  point  of 
view  is  too  narrow  to  explain  history.  One  must  lift  oneself  to 
humanity,  or,  better  still,  surpass  humanity,  and  lift  oneself  to 
the  supreme  being,  where  all  is  reason  and  everything  is  recon- 
ciled.    (P.  330.)  " 

I  have  never  understood  a  feeling  of  security  in  a  land  always 
menaced  by  floods,  nor  moral  happiness  in  society  that  presup- 
poses the  degradation  of  a  part  of  the  human  race.     (P.  333.) 

^"Malheur  a  qui  les  fait,  hereiuc  qui  les  herite,"  says  Lamartine 
in  Jocelyn.  Many  of  Eenan's  ideas  on  poetry,  religion  and  humanity 
are  expressed  in  this  poem,  a  work  for  which  he  expresses  high  admira- 
tion. 

122 


THE  FUTURE  OF  SCIENCE 

To  maintain  a  portion  of  humanity  in  a  state  of  brutality  is 
immoral  and  dangerous;  to  put  back  on  it  the  chains  of  religious 
belief,  which  moralized  it  sufficiently,  is  impossible.  There  re- 
mains then  only  one  way ;  it  is  to  enlarge  the  great  family,  to  give 
every  one  his  place  at  the  banquet  of  enlightenment.     (P.  334.) 

A  legitimate  government  is  one  founded  on  the  reason  of  its 
age:  an  illegitimate  government  is  one  that  uses  force  or  cor- 
ruption to  maintain  itself  in  spite  of  facts.     (P.  348.) 

The  ideal  of  a  government  will  be  a  scientific  government,  in 
which  competent  specialists  will  treat  governmental  questions  as 
scientific  questions,  seeking  their  rational  solution.     (P.  350.) 

In  primitive  societies,  the  college  of  priests  governed  in  the 
name  of  God;  in  the  societies  of  the  future,  savants  will  govern 
in  the  name  of  rational  research  for  the  best.     (P.  350.) 

The  end  of  humanity,  and  consequently  the  aim  that  political 
thought  ought  to  propose  to  itself,  is  to  realize  the  highest  possible 
human  culture,  that  is  to  say,  the  most  perfect  religion,  through 
science,  philosophy,  art,  moral  ideas,  in  a  word,  through  all 
the  ways  of  reaching  the  ideal  which  are  in  man's  nature.    (P.  364.) 

In  a  word,  society  owes  to  man  the  possibility  of  life,  of  that 
life  which  man  in  his  turn  ought  to  sacrifice  to  society  if  there 
is  need.     (P.  365.) 

The  wise  man  is  angry  with  no  one,  for  he  knows  that  human 
nature  becomes  wrathful  only  over  partial  truths.  He  knows  that 
all  parties  are  both  right  and  wrong.     (P.  374.) 

When  the  socialists  say:  The  aim  of  society  is  the  happiness 
of  all;  when  their  adversaries  say:  The  aim  of  society  is  the 
happiness  of  a  few;  both  deceive  themselves,  but  the  former  less 
than  the  latter.  We  ought  to  say:  The  aim  of  society  is  the 
greatest  possible  perfection  of  all,  and  material  well-being  has 
no  value  excepting  as  being  in  a  certain  measure  the  indispensable 
condition  of  intellectual  perfection.     (P.  378.) 

A  few  further  remarks  of  a  general  character  are  here 
added : 

123 


ERNEST  RENAN 

Perfection  will  be  the  aspiration  for  the  ideal,  in  other  words, 
religion,  exercised  no  longer  in  the  world  of  chimeras,  but  in  the 
world  of  reality.     (P.  85.) 

I  ask  whether  an  action  is  beautiful  or  ugly,  rather  than  whether 
it  is  good  or  bad;  and  I  think  I  have  a  good  criterion;  for  with 
the  simple  moral  code  of  the  respectable  man  one  can  still  lead 
a  wretched  enough  kind  of  life.     (P.  177.) 

The  altar  on  which  the  patriarchs  sacrificed  to  Jehovah,  taken 
materially,  was  nothing  but  a  heap  of  stones;  taken  in  its  human 
significance,  as  a  symbol  of  the  simplicity  of  ancient  worship  and 
of  the  rough,  amorphous  God  of  primitive  humanity,  that  heap 
of  stones  was  worth  a  temple  of  anthropomorphic  Greece,  and 
was  surely  a  thousand  times  more  beautiful  than  our  gilded 
marble  temples,  built  and  admired  by  people  who  do  not  believe 
in  God.     (P.  189.) 

Voltaire  is  not  in  his  tragedies  and  La  Henriade,  but  in  La 
Fete  de  Bellebat  and  La  Pueelle,  infamous  if  you  choose,  but 
it  is  the  century,  it  is  the  man.     (P.  193.) 

The  most  sublime  works  are  those  that  humanity  has  made 
collectively  and  without  any  possible  proper  name  attached  to 
them.  The  most  beautiful  things  are  anonymous.  What  do  I 
care  for  a  name  placed  between  me  and  humanity?  The  name 
itself  is  a  lie;  it  is  not  he,  it  is  the  nation,  it  is  humanity,  work- 
ing at  a  certain  point  of  time  and  space,  that  is  the  real  author. 
.  .  .  True  nobility  is,  not  to  have  a  name  for  oneself,  a  genius 
to  oneself;  it  is  to  participate  with  the  noble  race  of  the  sons 
of  God,  it  is  to  be  a  soldier  lost  in  the  immense  army  that  ad- 
vances to  the  conquest  of  the  perfect.  Yet  criticism  must  assign 
a  large  part  to  great  men.  They  feel  clearly  what  the  mass  feels 
vaguely;  they  give  voice  to  mute  instincts.  "We  were  mute,  0 
sublime  poet,  and  you  have  given  us  a  voice.  We  sought  our- 
selves, and  you  have  revealed  us  to  ourselves."     (Pp.  194-196.) 

It  is  a  law  of  things  that  the  forms  of  humanity  acquire  a  cer- 
tain solidity,  that  all  thought  aspires  to  become  stereotyped  and 
set  up  as  eternal.  Such  forms  at  last  become  an  obstacle  and 
must  be  burst.     (P.  383.) 

124 


THE  FUTURE  OF  SCIENCE 

Gymnastics  is  considered  by  many  a  useful  diversion  from  in- 
door work.  Would  it  not  be  more  useful  and  more  agreeable  to 
exercise  for  two  or  three  hours  the  trade  of  carpentry  or  garden- 
ing, taking  it  seriously,  that  is,  with  real  interest,  than  to  fatigue 
oneself  thus  with  insignificant  and  aimless  movements.    (Note  166.) 

Affected  abstinence  proves  that  one  makes  much  of  the  things 
he  deprives  himself  of ,  .  .  ,  Antagonism  of  body  and  spirit  must 
be  destroyed,  not  by  equalizing  the  terms,  but  by  carrying  one 
of  them  to  infinity,  so  that  the  other  becomes  zero.  That  done, 
allow  the  body  its  pleasures,  for  to  refuse  them  would  be  to 
suppose  that  these  poor  things  have  some  value.  The  device  of 
the  Saint-Simouians :  "Sanctify  yourself  through  pleasure,"  is 
abominable;  it  is  pure  Gnosticism.  That  of  Christianity:  "Sanc- 
tify yourself  in  abstaining  from  pleasure,"  is  still  imperfect. 
We  spiritualists  say:  "Sanctify  yourself,  and  pleasure  will  be- 
come insignificant  to  you,  you  will  never  dream  of  pleasure." 
(P.  404.) 

The  perfect  man  would  be  in  turn  inflexible  as  a  philosopher, 
weak  as  a  woman,  rude  as  a  Breton  peasant,  naive  and  sweet  as 
a  child.     (P.  408.) 

I  can  without  pride  believe  that  I  have  as  much  capacity  as 
an  agent  or  employee.  Well!  the  agent,  by  serving  material  in- 
terests, can  live  honorably.  And  I,  who  direct  myself  to  the 
soul,  I  the  priest  of  the  true  religion,  I  truly  do  not  know 
what  it  is  that  next  year  will  provide  me  bread.     (P.  416.) 

The  critic  is  he  who  accepts  all  afiirmations  and  perceives  the 
reason  of  everything.  He  goes  through  all  systems,  not  like  the 
skeptic  to  find  them  false,  but  to  find  them  true  in  some  respects. 
And  for  this  reason  the  critic  is  little  adapted  to  proselytism. 
For  what  is  partial  is  strong;  men  grow  passionate  only  for  the 
incomplete,  or,  to  speak  better,  passion,  attaching  them  exclusively 
to  one  object,  closes  their  eyes  to  all  the  rest.  .  .  .  The  critic  sees 
nuances  too  well  to  be  energetic  in  action.  Even  when  he  joins 
a  party,  he  knows  that  his  adversaries  are  not  altogether  wrong. 
Now,  in  order  to  act  with  vigor,  you  must  be  a  bit  brutal,  believe 
that  you  are  absolutely  right,  and  that  those  opposed  to  you  are 
blind  or  wicked.      (P.  447.) 

A  recollection  comes  to  me  that  saddens  rhe  without  making 
me  blush.    One  day  at  the  foot  of  the  altar  and  under  the  hand 

125 


ERNEST  RENAN 

of  the  bishop,  I  said  to  the  God  of  the  Christians:  Dominus  pars 
hereditatis  mece  et  calicis  mei;  tu  es  qui  restitues  hereditatem  meam 
mihi.  I  was  very  young  then,  and  yet  I  had  already  thought  much. 
At  each  step  I  took  toward  the  altar,  doubt  followed  me;  it  was 
science,  and  child  that  I  was,  I  called  it  the  devil.  Assailed  by 
contrary  thoughts,  tottering  at  the  age  of  twenty  on  the  founda- 
tions of  my  life,  a  luminous  thought  arose  in  my  soul  and  for  a 
time  reestablished  its  calm  and  sweetness:  Whoever  thou  art,  I 
cried  in  my  heart,  0  God  of  noble  souls,  I  take  thee  for  the  por- 
tion of  my  lot.  Hitherto  I  have  called  thee  by  the  name  of  a 
man;  because  told  to,  I  have  believed  him  who  said,  I  am  the 
truth  and  the  life.  I  shall  be  faithful  to  him  in  following  truth 
wherever  it  may  lead.  I  shall  be  a  true  Nazarite,  since,  renouncing 
the  vanities  and  superfluities  of  the  world,  I  shall  love  only  beauti- 
ful things  and  shall  propose  no  other  object  for  my  activities  here 
below.  To-day  I  do  not  repent  my  promise;  I  repeat  again  will- 
ingly, Dominus  pars  hereditatis  mece,  and  I  love  to  think  that 
I  pwonouneed  these  words  in  a  religious  ceremony.  The  hair  has 
grown  again  on  my  head,  but  I  am  still  a  member  of  the  holy  militia 
of  the  disinherited  of  the  earth.  I  shall  hold  myself  an  apostate 
only  on  that  day  when  self-interest  usurps  in  my  soul  the  place 
of  holy  things,  the  day  when  thinking  of  the  Christ  of  the  Gospels 
I  shall  no  longer  feel  myself  his  friend,  the  day  when  I  shall 
prostitute  my  life  to  lower  things  and  when  I  shall  become  the 
companion  of  the  joyous  ones  of  earth. 

Funts  ceciderunt  mihi  in  prceclaris!  My  lot  will  always  be 
with  the  disinherited;  I  shall  be  of  the  company  of  the  poor  in 
spirit.  Might  all  those  who  still  adore  something  be  united  by 
the  object  they  adore!  The  age  of  little  men  and  little  things 
is  past;  the  age  of  saints  is  come.  The  atheist  is  the  frivolous 
man^  the  impious,  the  pagans,  are  the  profane,  the  egotists,  those 
who  think  nothing  of  the  things  of  God;  withered  souls  that 
affect  cleverness  and  laugh  at  those  who  believe;  base  and  earthly 
souls,  destined  to  yellow  with  egotism  and  to  die  of  nullity.  How, 
O  disciples  of  Christ,  can  you  ally  yourselves  with  such  men? 
Would  it  not  be  better  for  us  both  to  seat  ourselves  by  the 
side  of  humanity  sitting  sad  and  silent  by  the  dusty  road,  so 
that  we  might  raise  its  eyes  toward  the  sweet  heavens  it  no  longer 
looks  to?  For  us  the  die  is  cast;  and  even  if  superstition  and 
frivolity,  henceforth  inseparable  auxiliaries,  should  succeed  in 
benumbing  human  consciousness  for  a  time,  it  will  be  said  that  in 
this  nineteenth  century,  the  century  of  fear,  there  were  some  men 

126 


THE  FUTURE  OF  SCIENCE 

who,  notwithstanding  vulgar  contempt,  loved  to  be  called  men  of 
the  other  world;  men  who  believed  in  truth  and  had  a  passion  for 
research,  in  the  midst  of  a  century  that  was  frivolous  because 
without  faith  and  superstitious  because  it  was  frivolous. 

I  was  formed  by  the  Church,  I  owe  her  what  I  am,  and  this  I 
shall  never  forget.  The  Church  separated  me  from  the  profane, 
and  I  thank  her.  Whom  God  ha.s  touched  will  always  be  a  crea- 
ture apart ;  whatever  he  may  do,  he  is  out  of  place  among  men,  he 
is  marked  by  a  sign.  For  him  youths  have  no  pleasing  offerings 
and  maidens  no  smiles.  Since  he  has  seen  God,  his  tongue  falters, 
he  can  no  longer  speak  of  earthly  thiogs.  0  God  of  my  youth,  I 
long  hoped  to  return  to  thee  with  flags  flying  and  in  the  pride  of 
reason,  and  perhaps  I  shall  return  humble  and  conquered  like 
a  frail  woman.  Formerly  thou  didst  listen  to  me;  I  hoped  some 
day  to  see  thy  face;  for  I  heard  thee  answer  my  voice.  And  I 
have  seen  thy  temple  fall,  stone  after  stone,  and  in  the  sanctuary 
there  remains  no  echo,  and  instead  of  an  altar  adorned  with  lights 
and  flowers,  I  have  seen  raised  before  me  an  altar  of  brass,  against 
which  my  prayers  are  broken,  severe,  bare,  without  images,  with- 
out tabernacle,  blood-stained  by  fatality.  Is  it  my  fault  or  thine? 
I  would  gladly  beat  my  breast,  if  I  might  hope  to  hear  that  cher- 
ished voice  that  formerly  made  me  tremble.  But  no,  there  is 
nothing  but  inflexible  nature;  when  I  seek  thy  fatherly  eye,  I  find 
only  the  empty  and  bottomless  orb  of  the  infinite;  when  I  seek 
thy  celestial  forehead,  I  stumble  against  a  vault  of  brass  that 
coldly  casts  back  my  love.  Adieu,  then,  0  God  of  my  youth! 
Perhaps  thou  wilt  be  the  God  of  my  deathbed.  Adieu;  although 
thou  hast  deceived  me,  I  love  thee  still.  (These  words  form  the 
conclusion  of  the  book.) 

VI 

This  is  obviously  the  style  of  a  very  young  man.  Along 
with  the  enthusiasm,  there  is  throughout  something  of  the 
arrogance  of  the  neophite  in  scholarship,  who  looks  with  su- 
perior contempt  on  occupations  that  do  not  coincide  with  his 
studies,  and  whose  pet  aversion  is  the  business  man.  He 
can  get  along  with  a  peasant,  a  workman,  an  old  soldier, 
but  a  vulgar  bourgeois  he  cannot  talk  to :  "  We  are  not  of 
the  same  species,"  he  affirms.  (P.  467.)    This  is  frank,  and 

127 


ERNEST  RENAN 

the  whole  book  is  frank,  even  naive.  The  author  is  thinking 
aloud,  quite  without  reserve.  The  dominant  note,  indeed,  is 
personal,  often  autobiographical,  though  without  egotism, 
because  simple  and  sincere.  The  interest  of  many  pages  is 
largely  increased  by  familiarity  with  Kenan's  correspond- 
ence, notebooks  and  Recollections.  With  him  every  com- 
pletely acquired  experience  or  idea  is  permanent,  and  is 
apt  to  pop  up  in  the  most  unexpected  places.  "When  his 
main  thought  suggests  subsidiary  reflections,  he  allows  his 
mind  to  pursue  such  a  train,  however  far  it  may  lead, 
through  digression  after  digression,  much  in  the  manner  of 
Hamlet.  As  in  his  later  works,  so  here,  his  illustrations 
and  analogies  are  most  effective.  "When  precision  is  ap- 
propriate, he  is  perfectly  clear-cut  and  accurate,  while  aware 
that  a  precise  outline  of  a  vague  object  is  as  misleading  as 
a  vague  outline  of  a  precise  object.  "Whether  the  ideas  be 
of  the  one  sort  or  the  other,  he  propounds  them  with  the 
utmost  assurance.  His  aggressiveness  is,  in  fact,  a  little 
surprising  to  those  accustomed  to  his  later  suavity.  The 
words  puerile,  superficial,  pedants,  little  narrow  minds,  and 
the  like  are  not  spared.  Unqualified  and  trenchant  ex- 
pressions are  the  rule,  exhibiting  a  vivacity  of  feeling  that 
he  afterward  learned  to  control.  There  is  eloquence,  too; 
we  find  even  the  poetic  apostrophe,  a  form  he  was  always 
fond  of  and  that  he  possibly  borrowed  from  Herder.  In 
style  and  in  matter,  Kenan's  life  work  is  here  presented 
like  hard,  unripe  fruit  that  needs  some  days  of  sunlight  to 
bring  it  to  mellowness. 

The  future  work  that  is  most  clearly  in  mind  is  the 
Origins  of  Christiamty.  In  addition  to  numerous  illustra- 
tions drawn  from  the  history  of  the  early  church,  there  are 
two  direct  references  to  such  a  project. 

(a)  A  history  of  the  Origins  of  Christianity,  based  on  the  sources 
and  written  by  a  critic,  will  assuredly  be  a  work  of  some  philo- 
sophical importance;  with  what  must  this  marvelous  history  which, 

128 


THE  FUTURE  OF  SCIENCE 

if  executed  in  a  scientific  and  definitive  manner,  will  revolutionize 
our  thought,  be  constructed?  With  entirely  insignificant  books, 
such  as  the  Book  of  Enoch,  the  Testament  of  the  Twelve  Patriarchs, 
the  Testament  of  Solomon,  and  in  general  the  Jewish  and  Christian 
Apocrypha,  the  Chaldaic  paraphrases,  the  Mishna,  the  deutero- 
canonical  books,  etc.  (Pp.  185,  186.)  (&)  The  most  important 
book  of  the  nineteenth  century  will  be  a  Critical  History  of  the 
Origins  of  Christianity.  Admii'able  work,  which  I  envy  whoever 
will  realize  it,  and  which  will  be  the  work  of  my  mature  age, 
if  death  and  the  many  external  fatalities  that  often  lead  lives  out 
of  their  path,  do  not  hinder  me.     (P.  279.) 

Perhaps  even  more  interesting  in  the  light  of  character 
growth  is  the  fact  that  Renan  already  has  a  predilection  for 
Job  and  the  Song  of  Songs,  but  he  feels  no  attraction  as  yet 
for  Ecelesiastes. 

All  that  is  fundamental  in  Renan  is  to  be  found  in  The 
Future  of  Science,  his  sympathies,  his  antipathies,  his  ideas, 
his  hopes.  If  his  hopes  faded,  his  ideas  remained  at  bottom 
but  little  altered.  Superficially  it  might  seem  that  we  have 
here  the  prerevolutionary  faith  in  human  progress  and 
perfectability,  with  copious  additions  from  German  philos- 
ophy and  criticism,  particularly  from  Hegel  and  Herder. 
These  influences,  that  of  Herder  above  all,  and  many  others 
besides,  are  unquestionable,  and  are  freely  acknowledged; 
but  a  great  writer  is  not  a  mere  collection  of  scraps  gath- 
ered from  his  predecessors.  He  is  a  strong  and  original 
personality  that  absorbs  many  external  influences  and  fuses 
them  into  an  individual  and  genuine  unity.  Such  a  pervasive 
unity  manifests  itself  throughout  Renan 's  writings,  and  in 
a  crude  form  it  makes  its  unmistakable  appearance  in  this 
early  work. 

The  public,  however,  was  as  yet  unaware  of  its  new 
prophet.  A  fragment  of  the  work,  as  already  stated,  was 
given  out  in  La  Liberie  de  Penser  in  the  issue  for  July  15, 
1849,  with  the  announcement  that  the  volume  would  appear 
in  a  few  weeks;  but  before  a  publisher  was  found,  Renaa 

129 


ERNEST  RENAN 

started  on  his  mission  to  Italy,  and  when  he  returned,  his 
illusions  of  1848  had  fallen  away  as  impossibilities.  "I 
saw,"  he  says  in  his  preface  (1890),  "the  fatal  necessities 
of  human  society;  I  became  resigned  to  a  state  of  creation 
in  which  much  evil  serves  as  the  condition  of  a  little  good, 
in  which  an  imperceptible  quantity  of  aroma  is  extracted 
from  an  enormous  caput  mortuum  of  spoiled  matter.  I  be- 
came reconciled  in  some  respects  with  reality,  and,  in  taking 
up  again,  on  my  return,  the  book  written  a  year  before,  I 
found  it  crude,  dogmatic,  one-sided  and  hard. ' '  The  friends 
he  consulted  about  publication  gave  an  unfavorable  verdict. 
Augustin  Thierry  in  particular  urged  that  the  book  would 
be  a  complete  failure  and  a  heavy  load  for  him  to  carry. 
What  Renan  should  do,  in  his  judgment,  was  to  give  out  his 
ideas  in  small  doses  in  the  form  of  articles  on  various  topics 
contributed  to  the  Journal  des  Dehats  and  the  Revue  des 
deux  Mandes.  This  advice  Renan  fortunately  followed; 
he  put  his  book  away  in  a  drawer  of  his  desk,  and  from  1851 
to  1859  he  disseminated  most  of  the  essential  substance  of 
it  in  a  series  of  miscellaneous  essays  and  reviews.  These 
are  collected  in  two  volumes.  Studies  in  Religious  History 
and  Critical  and  Moral  Essays,  which,  had  he  written  noth- 
ing else,  are  alone  suflScient  to  give  his  intellectual  measure. 
The  Future  of  Science  in  its  original  form  was  offered  to 
the  public  only  in  the  spring  of  1890. 


CHAPTER  V 

ITALIAN  journey;  PERIODICAL  ESSAYS;  AVEREOBS;  HELPFUL  FRIENDS 

(1849-1854) 

In  August,  1849,  Renan  visited  his  family  at  Saint-Malo.  In 
September,  he  was  sent  by  the  Ministry  of  Education,  and  under 
instructions  from  the  Academy  of  Inscriptions  and  Belles-Lettres, 
on  a  mission  in  company  with  Charles  Daremberg  to  investigate 
the  libraries  of  Italy  and  report  on  their  manuscript  collections, 
particularly  Syrian  and  Arabic.  Starting  early  in  October,  he 
passed  through  the  south  of  France  and  by  sea  to  Rome.  At  the 
end  of  December  he  visited  Naples,  spent  a  fruitful  week  at 
Monte  Cassino,  and  was  back  in  Rome  by  January  26.  February 
found  him  in  Florence,  with  visits  to  Pisa  and  Siena.  Then 
Daremberg  returned  to  Paris,  and  Renan  went  back  to  Rome, 
where  he  remained  till  late  in  April.  Altogether  he  spent  almost 
five  months  in  the  sacred  city.  The  government  having  granted 
an  additional  500  francs,  he  journeyed  by  Perugia,  Assisi,  and 
Ravenna  to  Bologna  (early  in  May)  and  so  to  Venice,  whence 
he  passed  by  Padua,  Milan  and  Turin  (May  and  June)  back  to 
Paris  (about  July  1).  In  September,  Renan  fetched  Henriette 
from  Berlin,  and  the  two  then  lived  together  on  the  Val-de-Grace, 
the  mother  at  the  same  time  going  to  live  with  Alain  at  Saint- 
Malo.  At  some  time  after  his  return,  he  paid  a  short  visit  to 
the  British  Museum  for  the  purpose  of  studying  the  collection  of 
Syrian  Manuscripts,  which  he  found  essential  for  his  Latin  thesis, 
and  of  which  he  published  a  notice.  In  1851j  Renan  received 
an  appointment  as  attache  in  the  department  of  manuscripts  at  the 
Bibliotheque  Nationale.  In  the  same  year  he  began  writing  for 
the  Revue  des  deux  Mondes,  his  first  published  article  being  "Ma- 
homet et  les  origines  de  I'islamisme,"  December  15,  1851. 

In  1852,  Renan  took  his  degree  of  Docteur-es-lettres  (August  11) 
and  published  his  two  theses,  the  Latin  thesis — approved  Febru- 
ary 7 — being  De  philosophia  peripatetica  apud  Syros,  and  the 
French  thesis  being  his  first  book,  Averroes  and  Averroism.  In 
July  he  was  elected  to  the  Coimcil  of  the  Soeiete  Asiatique,  to  the 

131 


ERNEST  RENAN 

Journal  of  which  he  now  began  to  contribute  signed  articles. 
On  June  13  he  contributed  an  obituary  notice  of  Burnouf  to  the 
Moniteur  universel.  His  only  article  of  this  year  in  the  Revue 
des  deux  Mondes  was  a  brief  note  in  the  Chronique  on  Augustin 
Thierry.  In  this  magazine  also  in  1853  he  published  but  one 
article:  "Les  religions  de  I'antiquite  et  leurs  demiers  historiens." 
(J^tudes  d'histoire  religieuse.)  A  most  important  step  in  advance, 
however,  was  the  beginning  of  his  connection  with  the  Journal 
des  Debats,  for  which  he  wrote,  "Les  Seances  de  Hariri"  {Essais 
de  morale  et  de  critique),  published  June  8,  and  three  shorter 
reviews,  "L'Espagne  Mussulmane,"  August  31;  "Origine  et  forma- 
tion de  la  langue  frangaise,"  October  22;  and  "Voyages  d'lbn- 
Batoutah,"  December  14  (all  three  republished  in  Melanges  d'his- 
toire  et  de  voyages).  In  pure  scholarship  he  published  in  the 
Journal  Asiatique  (1853),  "Fragments  d'un  livre  gnostique  intitule 
Apocalypse  dAdam,"  which  was  reprinted  as  a  pamphlet  the  fol- 
lowing year.  On  June  13,  he  read  before  the  Societe  Asiatique 
a  portion  of  his  Grammaire  compares  des  langues  semitiques. 


In  the  summer  of  1849,  while  Renan  was  at  Saint-Malo, 
Genin,  Chief  of  the  Division  of  Science  and  Letters  in  the 
Ministry  of  Public  Instruction,  proposed  to  the  Academy 
of  Inscriptions  and  Belles-Lettres  that  the  young  scholar 
and  his  friend  Daremberg  be  sent  on  a  mission  to  examine, 
describe  and  copy  manuscripts  in  the  libraries  of  Italy. 
The  proposal  was,  in  regular  order,  referred  to  a  committee 
consisting  of  Le  Clerc,  who  made  the  report  on  September 
14,  Quatremere,  Hase,  and  Burnouf,  all  three  of  whom  added 
observations  regarding  the  task  to  be  accomplished.  Darem- 
berg  had  already  been  on  a  similar  mission  in  1845  to  investi- 
gate Greek  manuscripts  of  medical  works.  This  he  was  to 
continue ;  both  were  equally  to  concern  themselves  with  doc- 
uments valuable  for  the  literary  history  of  France,  and 
Renan  was  especially  to  fix  his  attention  on  oriental  manu- 
scripts.   The  task  laid  down  was  of  immense  scope,  and,  in 

132 


ITALIAN  JOURNEY 

addition,  a  large  field  was  left  for  individual  initiative  on 
the  spot.  After  calling  attention  to  certain  works  to  be  ex- 
amined, Burnouf,  who  wrote  the  last  part  of  the  report,  con- 
cludes by  saying  that,  beyond  these  instructions  which  are 
incomplete  because  the  authors  have  only  vague  information, 
"there  is  a  superior  order  of  instructions  that  a  man  like 
M.  Renan  finds  in  his  intelligence  and  his  curiosity. ' '  ^ 

Renan,  having  other  projects  in  mind,  did  not  want  to  go. 
He  had  expressed  his  repugnance  to  Genin,  who  paid  no 
attention  to  it.  Now,  in  his  embarrassment,  he  even  hopes 
that  the  cholera,  which  had  broken  out  in  Italy,  will  scare 
his  companion,  Daremberg,  and  thus  prevent  the  consum- 
mation of  the  plan.  In  a  year  or  two  he  would  like  the 
trip,  from  which  he  foresees  great  advantages.  "I  have  felt 
so  far,"  he  writes,  "only  in  this  humid  and  cold  climate; 
I  have  seen  only  these  indented  and  rugged  coasts.  I  imag- 
ine that  under  that  sky,  which  they  say  reveals  so  much, 
I  should  experience  more  complete  sensations  and  that  this 
would  make  an  epoch  in  my  esthetic  and  physical  life. ' '  ^ 

Fortunately  nothing  happened  to  prevent  the  Italian  jour- 
ney. Again,  circumstances  obliged  Renan  to  do  what  was 
best  for  him.  To  say  nothing  of  scholarly  advantages,  his 
experiences  transformed  him.  His  branching  horns,  as  he 
says,  that  scraped  every  side,  were  worn  down;  his  rigor 
was  softened  as  by  a  sort  of  warm  breeze ;  he  felt  the  power 
of  plastic  form.  The  value  of  beauty  in  life  he  already 
knew  as  assthetic  theory;  in  Italy  this  value  became  expe- 
rience, and  the  emotion  was  recognized  as  at  bottom  identical 
with  religious  aspiration.  "The  realm  of  art,  until  then 
almost  closed  to  me,  seemed  radiant  and  consoling. ' ' ' 


*  Academie  de3  Inscriptions  et  Bellea-Lettres,  Mimoires,  vol.  xviii, 
p.  123.  Eenan's  companion,  Daremberg,  afterward  professor  of  the 
history  of  medicine  in  Paris,  was  both  physician  and  philologist. 

»To  Berthelot,  September  5,  1849. 

*  Avenir,  preface,  p.  11. 

133 


ERNEST  RENAN 
And  first  Provence. 

I  was  twenty-five  [he  said  in  1891  in  his  speech  to  the  F6- 
lihres]  when  for  the  first  time  I  passed  through  the  land  that 
I  had  till  then  known  only  from  books.  Heavens,  what  a  revela- 
tion it  was  for  me!  I  had  never  before  seen  mountains.  The 
morning  I  awoke  amidst  the  mountains  of  Forez,  that  jagged 
horizon  filled  me  with  astonishment.  Lyons  became  thenceforth 
one  of  the  towns  I  loved  best.  I  descended  the  Rhone  in  one 
day  from  Lyons  to  Avignon.  What  enchantment !  At  four  in  the 
morning,  the  cold  mists  of  Perrache;  at  Vienne  the  beginnings  of 
day;  at  Valence,  a  new  sky,  the  true  threshold  of  the  south;  at 
Avignon,  a  luminous  evening,  the  5th  of  October,  1849.* 

Berthelot  accompanied  him  and,  after  visiting  Nimes  and 
Aries,  they  parted  at  Narbonne,  Renan  going  by  sea  to  Civita 
Vecchia,  and  thence  to  Rome.  Here  the  mass  of  impres- 
sions that  assailed  him  during  his  first  days  took  from  him 
every  faculty  but  that  of  feeling.  The  change  was  as  prompt 
as  a  stroke  of  lightning. 

This  city  is  an  enchantress  [he  writes] ;  she  puts  one  to  sleep, 
she  exhausts;  in  these  ruins  there  is  an  indefinable  charm;  in  these 
churches,  met  at  eveiy  step,  there  is  a  quiet,  a  fascination  almost 
supernatural.  Would  you  believe  it,  dear  friend,  I  am  entirely 
changed,  I  am  no  longer  French,  I  no  longer  criticize,  I  no  longer 
get  indignant,  I  no  longer  hold  opinions;  all  I  can  say  about 
anything  is:  It  is  so,  things  happen  so.  .  .  .  You  know  that  with 
me  religious  impressions  are  very  strong,  and,  as  a  consequence 
of  my  education,  they  mingle  in  indefinable  proportions  with  the 
most  mysterious  instincts  of  our  nature.  These  impressions  have 
been  awakened  here  with  an  energy  I  cannot  describe.  I  had 
not  understood  what  a  popular  religion  really  is,  a  religion  ac- 
cepted by  the  people  naively  and  without  criticisro;  I  had  not 
understood  a  people  incessantly  creative  in  religion,  taking  the 
dogmas  of  it  in  a  living  and  true  way.  ...  I  came  here  strangely 
prejudiced  against  southern  religion,  I  had  ready-made  phrases 
about  this  sensual,  despicable,  subtle  worship.  .  .  .  Well,  the  Ma- 
donnas have  conquered  me;  I  have  found  in  this  people,  in  its 

*  Feuilles  dStachees,  p.  114. 

134 


ITALIAN  JOUHNEY 

faith,  in  its  civilization,  an  incomparable  loftiness,  poetry  and 
ideality.  .  .  .  Our  idealism  is  abstract,  severe,  without  images; 
that  of  this  people  is  plastic,  turned  to  form,  invincibly  led  to 
translation  and  expression.  You  cannot  walk  a  quarter  of  an 
hour  in  Rome  without  being  struck  with  the  prodigious  fecundity  of 
images.  Everywhere  paintings,  statues,  churches,  monasteries; 
nothing  commonplace,  nothing  vulgar,  the  ideal  penetrating  every- 
where. ...  If  you  enter  a  church,  you  find  a  painting  of  Ra- 
phael, Domenico,  Albani,  a  Madonna  of  Pietro  da  Cortona,  a 
statue  of  Michelangelo.  Take,  for  example,  that  little  convent 
yonder.  .  .  .  Everywhere  monastic  life,  all  the  poetry  of  the  middle 
ages  revealed  in  grandiose  images.  In  the  interior  of  the  monas- 
tery, at  a  corner  of  a  corridor,  you  stop  before  a  celestial  coun- 
tenance :  a  Madonna,  the  monk  tells  you,  of  Leonardo  da  Vinci.  .  .  . 
He  who  should  live  in  such  a  place,  renouncing  action,  thought, 
criticism,  opening  his  soul  to  the  sweet  impressions  of  things, 
would  he  not  lead  a  noble  life,  and  should  he  not  be  numbered 
among  those  who  adore  in  spirit  Y ' 

After  Kome,  Naples. 

I  told  you  that  Rome  had  led  me  to  imderstand  for  the  first  time 
a  religion  which  is  paramount  and  monopolizes  the  spiritual  life 
of  a  people.  I  can  say  that  Naples  has  led  me  to  understand  for 
the  first  time  the  sovereign  absurdity,  the  horrible  bad  taste  of 
a  religion  degenerated  and  debased  by  a  degraded  people.  You 
can  never  imagine,  no,  never,  what  the  religion  of  Naples  actually 
is;  God  is  as  unknown  in  this  country  as  among  the  savages  of 
Oceania,  whose  religion  is  reduced  to  faith  in  genii.  For  these 
people  there  is  no  God,  there  are  only  saints.  And  what  are 
these  saints?  Not  religious  or  moral  models:  but  wonder-workers, 
species  of  supernatural  magicians,  by  whose  aid  one  can  get  out 
of  trouble  or  be  cured  of  illness.  There  are  saints  for  robbers,  and 
I  have  actually  seen  some  ex-voto  in  which  the  robber  is  repre- 
sented as  delivered  by  the  saint,  at  least  from  the  police.  I  cannot 
express  the  disgust  I  felt  the  first  time  I  entered  a  church  at 
Naples.  It  is  no  longer  art,  no  longer  ideality.  It  is  the  grossest 
sensuality,  instincts  too  vile  to  name.  The  religion  of  Naples 
may  be  defined  as  a  curious  variety  of  sexual  perversion.  You 
are  psychologist  enough  to  understand  this  by  analogy;  but  you 
could  never  imagine  the  thing  in  such  vivid  features  unless  you 

» To  Berthelot,  November  9,  1849. 

135 


ERNEST  RENAN 

had  seen  this  indescribable  city.  Imagine  a  people  deprived  of 
moral  sense,  yet  religious,  since  to  humanity  in  its  lower  stages 
religion  is  more  essential  than  morality,  and  picture  what  this 
can  be.  .  .  .  The  first,  the  dominant  effect  produced  by  Rome 
(and  I  think  by  Florence  too)  is  artistic  intoxication.  One  is 
possessed,  dominated,  filled,  overflowed  by  the  torrent  of  the 
plastic,  of  forms,  of  the  sensuous,  that  strikes  the  eyes  and  every 
sense,  at  each  step  on  that  sacred  soil.  Art  is  in  the  atmosphere, 
in  the  sky,  in  the  monuments,  I  may  say  even  in  the  men.  Here,  on 
the  contrary,  there  is  no  trace  of  art,  nothing  worthy  of  the 
name:  not  a  religious  manifestation  in  the  least  degree  poetic, 
churches  that  make  you  burst  out  laughing,  a  grotesque  worship, 
monuments  of  supreme  bad  taste.  .  .  .  Naples  has  never  produced 
an  artist,  a  poet;  bad  taste  has  always  reigned  supreme,  and,  in 
truth,  it  is  only  here  that  I  have  understood  bad  taste.  All  this, 
I  repeat,  because  the  ideal  could  win  no  place :  sensation  smothers 
everything.  Priapus,  that  is  their  god,  that  is  all  the  art  of  this 
country.  .  .  .  The  instinct  for  pleasure  is  necessary  for  high 
artistic  sensibility;  but,  if  it  goes  beyond  its  just  proportion,  the 
higher  formula  is  violated,  there  is  nothing  but  matter  left,  brutal 
pleasure,  degradation,  nullity;  such  is  Naples.  ...  I  can  never 
tell  you  what  I  felt  amid  the  ruins  of  ancient  Paestum.  Picture 
a  Dorian  city  of  the  seventh  or  eighth  century  before  the  Christian 
era,  perfectly  preserved  in  its  temples  and  edifices,  a  Greek  city 
in  its  purest  and  most  primitive  type,  an  admirable  site,  on  one 
side  the  mountain,  on  the  other  the  sea,  three  temples  still  almost 
intact,  in  that  bizarre  and  exceptional  style  that  bears  the  name 
of  the  town,  the  civilization  of  Greater  Greece  subsisting  there 
absolutely  whole;  and  to-day,  in  the  nineteenth  century,  savages 
living  in  huts  in  the  midst  of  this  vast  enclosure  that  still  stands. 
I  have  seen  the  limits  of  civilization  and  I  have  been  frightened: 
like  a  man  striking  his  foot  against  a  wall  he  believed  far  dis- 
tant. Yes,  I  felt  there  the  saddest  emotion  of  my  life.  I  trembled 
for  civilization,  seeing  it  so  limited,  seated  on  so  weak  a  base, 
resting  on  so  few  individuals  even  in  the  land  where  it  rules. 
For  how  many  men  are  there  in  Europe  who  are  truly  of  the 
nineteenth  century?  And  what  are  we,  scouts,  advance  guard,  in 
the  presence  of  this  inertia,  of  this  flock  of  brutes  that  follows 
us?  Ah!  if  some  day  they  should  fling  themselves  upon  us,  re- 
fusing to  follow !  I  must  see  Paris  to  drive  Paestum  from  my  mind.* 

•  To  Berthelot,  January  7, 1850. 

136 


ITALIAN  JOURNEY 

Kenan's  dream  of  science  redeeming  the  world  was  post' 
poned  to  an  indefinite,  but  assuredly  far-away,  future. 

In  general,  his  political  prophecies  go  wide  of  the  mark. 
A  week  before  the  triumphal  reentry  of  Piux  IX,  he  ia 
sure  the  Pope  will  never  return  to  Rome;  he  is  equally 
positive  that  Rome  will  never  be  a  capital,  only  a  little  cen- 
ter like  Turin  or  Florence.  "The  salvation  of  Italy,"  he 
writes,  "will  come  from  the  monks"  (January  20,  1850). 

Quite  as  erroneous  is  a  political  forecast  based  on  historic 
development : 

Centralization  would  be  the  death  of  Italy.  Rome,  Naples, 
Florence,  capitals  of  departments!  That  is  ail  right  for  Dijon, 
Bordeaux,  etc.,  which  have  never  been  alive.  But  Florence  has 
lived,  Florence  would  never  accept  such  a  role.  Make  Italy  free, 
Florence  would  secede,  Siena  would  secede,  Genoa  would  secede, 
Sicily  would  secede,  Venice  would  secede — and  yet  the  idea  of 
Italian  unity  germinates  all  over.  Let  us  come  to  an  understand- 
ing: the  theorists  imbued  with  French  and  cosmopolitan  ideas 
would  be  the  first  dupes  and  victims  and  the  first  to  be  disap- 
pointed, if  Italy  were  freed  from  the  foreigner.  Yet  it  is  true 
that  Italy  has  a  common  hatred  of  the  foreigner,  and  even  a 
vague  feeling  of  intellectual  and  moral  unity.  This  would  be 
enough  to  create  a  league  against  the  foreigner.  Would  it  be 
strong  enough  to  create  a  compact  state?  No,  a  thousand  times 
no.  Would  it  be  enough  to  produce  a  confederation  of  Italian 
republics?  I  do  not  believe  even  this  much.  These  cities  would 
tear  one  another  again  with  their  teeth,  and  at  the  end  of  a  year, 
would  call  in  against  their  rival,  France  or  the  Emperor.  This 
may  be  said  only  of  the  present,  without  speaking  of  the  destiny 
a  far  future  may  reserve  for  this  country.^ 

But  it  was  not  chiefly  current  politics  that  Renan  absorbed 
in  Italy.  Wherever  he  went,  his  mind  was  open  to  every  sort 
of  impression,  and  these  impressions  were  of  extraordinary 

'  To  Berthelot  from  Florence,  February  5,  1850.  The  political  ideas 
that  Eenan  acquired  in  Italy  are  set  forth  in  his  essay,  "Dom  Luigi 
Tosti,  ou  le  parti  guelfe  dans  1 'Italic  contemporaine, "  written  in 
1851,  and  published,  apparently  for  the  first  time,  in  Essais  de  morale 
et  de  critique. 

137 


ERNEST  ilENAN 

vividness.  Always  a  good  traveler  even  in  his  latest  years, 
with  a  most  lively  susceptibility  and  the  keenest  interest  in 
all  the  varying  phases  of  nature,  art,  and  humanity,  Renan 
in  this  first  journey  had  in  addition  the  buoyant  flexibility 
of  a  perfectly  fresh,  yet  admirably  cultivated  spirit  respond- 
ing unhampered  to  the  excitement  of  absolute  novelty.  He 
mingled  in  social  life,  visited  cafes,  went  to  the  opera,  took 
delight  in  Petrarch ;  he  never  gets  over  his  astonishment  at 
the  beauty  of  real  ruins,  temples,  pavements,  arches,  tombs, 
the  Colosseum,  statues  in  their  original  stations  instead  of 
in  museums,  true  monuments,  not  mere  objects  of  curiosity. 
He  is  enchanted,  too,  with  natural  beauty,  the  Bay  of  Na- 
ples, the  Apennines,  the  lagoons,  the  sun,  the  sky.  The  par- 
ticularities of  each  region  excite  reflections,  the  Papal  rule 
in  Rome,  the  horrible  tyranny  at  Naples,  the  liberalism  of 
the  monks  at  Monte  Cassino,  the  local  and  municipal  life 
of  Tuscany  and  Umbria,  the  fatal  isolation  of  Venice.  He 
never  tires  of  Rome;  at  his  third  visit,  he  finds  it  like  a 
great  poem  that  reveals  new  beauties  at  each  successive  read- 
ing. Only  once  is  there  even  a  touch  of  homesickness,  which 
is,  indeed,  rather  a  painful  longing  for  intimate  communion 
with  his  friend  (March  10,  1850).  At  Portici  he  had  an 
interview  with  Pius  IX,  and  found  him  amiable  and  good, 
with  characteristically  Italian  limitations  of  mind.  The 
spectacle  of  the  Pope's  return  to  Rome  made  an  indelible 
impression  of  mutable  popular  ferocity  ready  for  explosion. 
All  these  experiences,  eagerly  assimilated,  became  a  perma- 
nent gallery  of  pictures  and  a  magazine  of  ideas,  from  which 
he  constantly  drew  traits  for  his  later  works. 

Pisa  fills  him  with  enthusiasm,  art  developing  in  the  town 
itself,  among  its  own  citizens,  to  satisfy  municipal  needs; 
and  this  enthusiasm  is  even  more  ardent  in  Perugia  and 
Assisi. 

Assisi  [he  writes.  May  11,  1850]  is  incomparable,  and  I  have 
been  rewarded  for  the  truly  meritorious  pains  I  have  undergone 

138 


ITALIAN  JOURNEY 

to  visit  it.  Picture  to  yourself  the  whole  of  this  great  popular 
medieval  legend  in  two  superposed  churches  by  Giotto  and  Cima- 
bue!  The  city  is  still  older  than  its  monuments.  It  is  all  of  the 
Middle  Ages;  whole  streets  absolutely  abandoned  have  remained 
Btone  for  stone  what  they  were  in  the  fourteenth  century.  Six 
or  seven  churches  almost  as  curious  as  Saint  Francis,  make  this 
city  unique  in  the  world.  The  profusion  of  art  surpasses  imagina- 
tion. The  outside,  the  inside,  the  doors,  the  windows,  the  beams, 
the  mantelpieces,  everything  is  painted  or  sculptured.  Street 
painting,  frequent  all  over  Italy,  is  the  characteristic  trait  of 
Umbria.  The  mystical  and  little  nationalistic  tint  of  the  Umbrian 
spirit  (wherein  lies  its  inferiority  in  comparison  with  Tuscany, 
so  intellectual)  is  above  all  sensible  in  this  place,  still  full  of  the 
second  Christ  of  the  Middle  Ages. 

And  finally  Venice,  Milan  being  entirely  modern,  mercan- 
tile, Parisian,  and,  from  an  architectural  standpoint,  a 
transported  rue  de  Rivoli. 

Venice  is  the  most  striking  example  of  the  irremediable  de- 
cadence of  certain  very  beautiful  things  in  humanity:  Venice. is 
certainly  one  of  the  most  beautiful  flowers  that  has  bloomed  in 
humanity.  Yet  Venice  will  not  live  again.  Venice  can  live  only  on 
condition  of  being  autonomous;  and  the  tendency  being  toward 
agglomerations,  the  autonomy  of  a  town,  the  antique  city,  and 
that  of  medieval  Italy,  has  become  impossible.  The  only  alterna- 
tive for  Venice  is  to  be  rich  or  to  perish.  But  all  efforts  to 
give  her  back  her  splendor  will  be  futile;  prosaic  Trieste  is  easily 
worth  more;  and  it  is  not  even  desirable  for  the  general  good  of 
humanity,  that  real  and  present  advantages  should  be  sacrificed  to 
historical  considerations.  .  .  .  Yet  these  old  things  remain  with 
their  poetry,  their  charm,  their  reminiscences.  What  Venice  re- 
veals above  all  is  the  spirit  of  the  city,  the  contact,  the  consecu- 
tiveness,  the  solidarity  of  generations,  what  it  means  to  found 
institutions,  customs.  The  primitive  constitutions  of  Venice  equal 
in  poetry  and  harmony  all  that  is  purest  in  Greek  origins.  Vene- 
tian art,  however,  is  much  less  pure  than  Tuscan.  The  source 
is  not  pure;  there  are  reminiscences  of  Constantinople,  of  the 
Arab  style.  There  is  caprice,  fantasy,  ravishing  fantasy,  caprice 
full  of  charm.  But  it  is  not  pure  beauty  without  mannerism,  as 
in  the  Parthenon  and  at  Pisa.     (May  23,  1850.) 

139 


ERNEST  RENAN 

Everyivhere  in  his  reflections  the  character  of  the  art  is 
as  prominent  as  the  character  of  the  life  of  the  people. 
Indeed,  art  has  become  so  essential  to  Renan  that  he  advises 
it  to  Berthelot  as  a  remedy  for  a  fit  of  the  blues,  not  art  as 
the  handmaid  of  thought,  but  unadulterated  beauty  and 
poetry  of  the  antique  stamp,  free  from  any  disturbing  philo- 
sophic idea. 

But  while  appreciation  of  art  was  the  capital  addition  to 
his  equipment  which  Renan  brought  back  from  Italy,  it  was 
a  by-product,  and  not  the  main  object  of  his  endeavors.  His 
time  was  chiefly  spent  in  libraries,  seeking  and  examining 
manuscripts.  Little  as  this  task  appears  in  the  letters  to 
Berthelot,  we  yet  know  that  it  was  accomplished  in  such  a 
manner  as  to  add  to  his  stock  of  learning  and  to  increase  his 
reputation  as  a  scholar.  At  Naples  everything  was  under 
seal,  but  at  Rome,  Florence  and  Monte  Cassino  valuable 
treasures  were  found.  In  addition  to  Syriac  manuscripts, 
catalogued  and  described,  he  discovered  an  unpublished  frag- 
ment of  Abelard  and  an  important  Arabic  text  of  Aver- 
roes.* 

His  thesis  for  the  doctorate  was,  indeed,  constantly  in 
mind.  Writing  of  his  trip  to  Venice,  he  says:  "I  have 
there  the  seat  of  my  Averroistic  philosophy,  whose  history  I 
want  to  write,  and  about  which  my  ideas  have  been  much 
enlarged  in  Italy.  It  will  be  the  history  of  incredulity  in  the 
Middle  Ages. ' '  *  Two  letters  from  Rome  addressed  to  Rei- 
naud,  his  teacher  of  Arabic  in  the  J^cole  des  langues  orien- 
tales,  and  published  in  the  Journal  Asiatique,'^"  show  haw  la- 
boriously he  worked,  sometimes  copying  as  much  as  a  hun- 

•The  manuscript  of  Abelard,  that  of  Averroes  and  others  of  a 
philosophical  interest  in  Florence  and  Pisa  are  the  subject  of  a  long 
letter  to  Cousin  written  from  Rome,  February  17,  1850.  Renan 
offers  to  copy  anything  Cousin  may  desire  and  he  signs  himself, 
"Your  respectful  disciple."  Bevue  d'histoire  litter  aire  de  la  France, 
1911,  p.  197. 

•To  Berthelot,  March  31,  1850. 

*•  December  10,  1849,  and  February  27,  1850,  aeries  iv,  vol.  xv. 

140 


ITALIAN  JOUENEY 

dred  pages  of  Syrian  or  Arabic  text.  To  the  Academy  of 
Inscriptions  and  Belles-Lettres,  a  letter  written  jointly  by 
Renan  and  Daremberg  was  read  by  Le  Clerc,  January  18, 
1850 ;  on  March  15,  Burnouf  read  a  second  letter,  this  time 
solely  by  Renan;  and  the  official  report  was  presented,  the 
first  part  from  both  on  May  24,  and  the  second  part  from 
Renan  alone  on  September  6.^^ 

At  some  time  shortly  after  his  return,  Renan  went  to  Lon- 
don to  examine  the  Syrian  manuscripts  in  the  British  mu- 
seum, but  his  time  for  this  investigation  was  sadly  limited.^* 
He  found,  however,  much  material  for  use  in  his  Latin  thesis 
on  Aristotle  in  Syria.  Without  these  manuscripts,  indeed, 
his  argument  in  that  work  would  have  lacked  its  decisive 
weight. 

While  in  Italy,  Renan  had  begun  to  embody  his  experiences 
in  the  form  of  a  novel.  The  reflections  of  the  hero  and  his 
situation — loss  of  faith,  abandonment  of  the  seminary,  trip 
to  Italy — are  his  own ;  the  author  has  simply  added  the  love 
of  a  pious  Breton  maiden  and  placed  the  episodes  in  the 
epoch  of  the  French  Revolution.  There  are  two  frag- 
mentary forms,  one  Patrice,  a  series  of  letters  almost  purely 
reflective,  and  the  other,  Ernest  and  Beatrix,^^  in  which 
there  are  scraps  of  the  sketch  of  a  story.    The  chief  interest 

"Kenan's  troubles  in  finding  manuscripts  in  the  disorderly  collec- 
tions in  Rome  are  echoed  in  his  review  of  Ozanam's  Documents 
vnedits  pour  servir  a  I'histoire  litteraire  de  I'ltalie  in  the  Journal 
des  Savants,  April,  1851;  Melanges  religieux  et  higtoriqv^s,  p.  319 
et  seq.  See  particularly  the  story  of  a  miracle  and  Kenan's  interpre- 
tation, pp.  321-323.  A  curious  feature  of  this  article  is  that  Kenan 
repeats  almost  verbatim  a  passage  from  an  earlier  review.  Cf.  pp. 
328,  329  ajid  pp.  265,  266. 

"  See  letter  from  him  to  Reinaud  in  Journal  Asiatique,  April,  1852,  of 
which  there  was  a  separate  reprint ;  ' '  Lettre  k  M.  Reinaud  sur  quelques 
Manuscrits  syriaques  du  Musee  Britannique  eontenants  des  traduc- 
tions d'auteurs  grecs  profanes  et  des  traites  philosophiques.  Extrait 
du  Journal  Asiatique,  43  pp.    Imprimerie  Nationale. " 

'*  Balzac  had  written  a  story  Beatrix,  the  scene  of  which  is  in  Brit- 
tany, but  Beatrix  seems  to  have  been  a  general  name  for  an  ideal 
maiden.    It  is  often  thus  used  by  Sainte-Beuve. 

141 


ERNEST  RENAN 

of  these  documents  lies  in  their  presentation  of  the  romantic 
and  sentimental  element  in  the  young  Renan.  Like  St. 
Augustine,  he  was  in  love  with  love,  and  he  felt  the  need  to 
express,  not  only  his  philosophical  and  scientific  side,  but 
the  whole  of  his  nature.  His  heart  was  full  of  vague  longing. 
'  *  I  love  in  general, ' '  he  says,  ' '  I  have  constructed  a  Beatrix, 
I  see  her,  I  adore  her.  But  this  Beatrix  has  no  real  person 
to  whom  she  corresponds.  Every  woman  I  see  ravishes  me 
to  heaven;  but  passes,  and  her  trace  is  soon  effaced.  My 
timid  modesty,  my  external  position  permit  nothing  more. 
Alas!  my  golden  age  will  pass  perhaps  without  my  being 
able  to  do  more  than  dream  of  happiness, ' '  ^* 

His  dreams,  however,  cannot  long  detach  him  from  his  re- 
flections upon  his  impressions  of  Italy  and  upon  things  in 
general,  the  same  ideas  as  are  found  in  his  correspondence 
and  in  The  Future  of  Science.  Often,  it  is  true,  we  find  a 
view  from  a  fresh  angle.  "The  time  has  come  when  Chris- 
tianity should  cease  to  be  dogma  and  become  poetry."" 
"Science  aspires  to  be  true;  religion  seeks  above  all  to  be 
beautiful. ' '  ^°  After  Rome  and  Naples,  he  is  impressed  with 
the  necessity  of  Catholicism  for  the  masses,  with  its  fitness 
for  its  place  in  the  world. 

Nothing  equals  the  grandeur  of  Catholicism  when  looked  upon 
in  its  colossal  proportions,  with  its  mysteries,  its  ritual,  its  sacra- 
ments, its  mythical  history,  its  patriarchs,  prophets,  apostles,  mar- 
tyrs, virgins,  saints,  immense  accumulation  of  eighteen  centuries, 
where  nothing  is  lost,  mountain  always  growing,  gigantic  temple, 
where  each  generation  places  its  layer.  .  .  .  Humanity  needs  po- 
etry. The  priest  is  not  the  philosopher  and  scholar,  the  man  of 
the  truth;  but  he  is  the  man  of  this  great  system  of  confused 
and  intertwined  idealism  that  humanity  creates  for  itself  under 
the  name  of  religion.  So  complex  a  creation  is  assuredly  open 
to  criticism,  and  science  cannot  accept  it  all  of  a  piece.     But 

^*  Fragments  intimes  et  romanesques,  p.  104. 
"/6tJ.,  p.  33. 
«/bid.,  p.  34. 

142 


ITALIAN  JOURNEY 

when,  in  these  vast  constructions,  science  finds  diverse  elements, 
straw,  mud,  worthless  materials,  it  has  no  right  for  that  reason  to 
condemn  the  whole  edifice,  nor  to  claim  that  this  is  not  fitted  for 
its  social  purpose.^' 

It  is  only  the  dogmatic  doctors  of  theology  who  revolt  him. 
"I  would  gladly  climb  the  Scala  Santa  on  my  knees,  if  I 
were  dispensed  from  believing  in  the  authenticity  of  the 
Book  of  Daniel  or  in  the  Messianic  interpretation  of  this  or 
that  Psalm."  ^*  The  reality  lies,  not  in  the  fact,  but  in  the 
idea,  "What  do  I  care  whether  this  man,  of  whom  history 
tells  almost  nothing,  has  or  has  not  trod  this  ground  ?  Would 
Cephas  be  any  the  less  the  cornerstone  of  humanity  ?  What 
do  I  care  about  that  obscure  fisherman,  who  doubtless  never 
suspected  the  exalted  destiny  to  which  he  was  called!  The 
true  Peter,  the  Peter  to  be  revered,  is  the  one  created  by 
humanity,  the  Peter  who,  for  ten  centuries,  has  been  the 
master  of  souls,  before  whom  emperors  have  bowed,  to  whom 
humanity  has  paid  tribute,  and  whose  bronze  foot  is  worn 
by  the  kisses  of  pilgrims. ' '  ^^ 

There  are  interesting  passages  in  these  pages,  but,  judg- 
ing from  the  fragments  as  they  stand,. it  is  fortunate  that 
Renan  never  completed  his  novel,  whether  Pairice  or  Ernest 
and  Beatrix.  In  both  we  find  an  inharmonious  jumble  of 
exaggerated  sentimentalism  and  philosophic  reflection,  of 
romantic  unreality  and  his  own  personal  experience.  Thirty 
years  later  he  returned  to  the  plan  of  self-expression  through 
fictitious  characters,  but  by  the  time  he  wrots  his  dramas, 
he  had  ripened ;  his  tendency  to  prolixity  was  restrained  by 
the  stricter  form,  and  his  tendency  to  gush  was  chastened  by 
years  and  wisdom.  He  had  grown  to  be,  what  could  not  be 
claimed  for  the  youth  of  1849,  a  literary  artist. 


"Ibid.,  pp.  34,  35. 
"/bid.,  p.  38. 
"Z&id.,  p.  65. 

143 


ERNEST  RENAN 


II 


Late  in  September  ^^  Renan  went  to  Berlin  for  Henriette, 
■who  had  developed  in  Poland  a  chronic  affection  of  the  larynx 
that  necessitated  her  return.  She  had  paid  her  father's 
debts,  and  the  house  at  Tregnier  was  now  unincumbered 
in  the  hands  of  the  mother.  Her  task  was  accomplished,  but 
age  had  prematurely  wrinkled  her  brow  and  withered  her 
personal  charms,  though  her  expression  of  ineffable  goodness 
remained. 

Brother  and  sister  took  a  small  apartment  at  the  end  of  a 
garden  on  Val-de-Grace. 

Our  solitude  was  absolute  [writes  Renan].  She  had  no  social 
ties  and  sought  to  form  none.  Our  windows  looked  on  the  garden 
of  the  Carmelites  of  the  rue  d'Enfer.  During  the  long  hours  I 
spent  at  the  library,  the  life  of  these  nuns  in  a  way  regulated 
hers  and  constituted  her  single  distraction.  Her  respect  for  my 
work  was  great.  I  have  seen  her  for  hours  by  my  side  of  an 
evening,  scarcely  breathing  for  fear  of  interrupting  me;  she  just 
wanted  to  see  me,  and  the  door  between  our  rooms  was  always 
open.  Her  love  had  become  so  ripe  that  the  secret  communion 
of  thought  sufficed.  She,  so  exigent  in  matters  of  the  heart,  so 
jealous,  was  content  with  a  few  minutes  a  day  provided  she  .felt 
assured  of  being  the  only  object  of  love.  Thanks  to  her  rigorous 
economy,  she  conducted  with  singularly  limited  resources  a  house- 
hold in  which  nothing  was  ever  lacking  and  which  even  had  its 
austere  charm.  .  .  .  She  was  an  incomparable  secretary  for  me; 
she  copied  all  my  works  and  entered  into  them  so  deeply  that  I 
could  rely  on  her  as  on  a  living  index  of  my  thought.  For  my 
style  I  owe  her  more  than  I  can  say.  She  read  proofs  of  all  I 
wrote,  and  her  precious  criticism  hunted  out  with  infinite  deli- 
cacy the  negligences  I  had  overlooked.  .  .  .  She  convinced  me 
that  everything  might  be  said  in  the  simple  and  correct  style  of 
good  writers,  and  that  neologisms  and  violent  images  always  spring 
from  misplaced  pretension  or  ignorance  of  our  real  riches.    Thus, 

**  Berthelot  addressed  a  letter  to  Benan  at  the  Hdtel  des  Mines,  rue 
d'Enfer,  Paris,  on  the  16th. 


ITALIAN  JOURNEY 

from  my  reunion  with  her  dates  a  profomid  change  in  my  way 
of  writing.  I  got  used  to  composing  in  view  of  her  remarks, 
hazarding  many  points  to  see  what  effect  they  would  produce  on 
her,  and  ready  to  sacrifice  them  at  her  demand.  .  .  .  One  quality 
that  offended  her  in  my  writings  was  a  love  of  irony  that  beset 
me  and  that  I  mingled  in  my  best  things.  I  had  never  suffered, 
and  I  found  in  a  discrete  smile,  provoked  by  the  feebleness  or  vanity 
of  man,  a  certain  philosophy.  This  habit  offended  her  and  little 
by  little  I  sacrificed  it  to  her." 

Their  means  were  slender  and  precarious.  Henriette 
wrote  for  Mile.  Ulliae's  magazine,  the  Journel  des  jeunes 
personnes,  under  the  pseudonym  Mile.  Emma  du  Guendy, 
and  Renan  wrote  book  reviews  for  various  periodicals,  among 
them  the  Journal  general  de  Vinstruction  publique  and  the 
Athen/ium  franqais,^^  and  probably  gave  lessons  and  sup- 
plied the  places  of  absent  professors.  In  1851  ^^  he  was  ap- 
pointed by  Haureau  attache  in  the  department  of  manu- 
scripts of  the  Bibliotheque  Nationale  ^*  under  Hase,  a  humble 
position  paid  by  the  day  f^  but  giving  time  and  opportunity 


*Ma  Soeur  Henriette,  pp.  31-34. 

"  L'AtheruEum  franqais,  an  imitation  of  the  London  weekly,  was 
published  from  1852  to  June,  1856.  For  it  Renan  wrote  only  two 
signed  reviews,  one  of  Egger's  book  on  comparative  grammar,  De- 
cember 18,  1852,  and  one  of  the  refutation  of  Spinoza  by  Leibnitz, 
April  29,  1854.  {Melanges  religieux  et  historiques.}  He  wrote  one 
signed  and  a  half  dozen  unsigned  notes.  See  Strauss,  Politique,  p.  341. 
Although  his  name  was  still  carried  in  the  list  of  principal  con- 
tributors, he  ceased  writing  for  this  paper  when  in  1854  it  published 
a  poem  to  la  Monti  jo,  a  bit  of  servility  that  filled  him  with  contempt. 
(Letter  to  Bersot,  Strauss,  ibid.)  The  chief  scholarly  support  of 
the  AthencEum  was  Maury,  who  was  a  very  frequent  contributor. 

"In  the  list  of  members  of  the  Soci^te  Asiatique  for  1851  Eenan 
appears  as  filfeve  de  l'6cole  des  langues  orientales;  in  the  list  for  1852 
as  attach^.  On  January  14,  1852,  he  writes  to  Bersot  as  though  he 
had  been  settled  lor  some  time  at  the  library. 

** Haureau  says  the  appointment  was  made  by  hia  free  choice; 
Histoire  litteraire  de  la  France,  xxxi. 

**  It  seems  that  his  pay  was  five  francs  a  day.  He  writes  to  Bersot, 
May  17,  1852,  "If  five  hours  of  erudition  at  five  francs  a  day  were 
not  beneath  you,  I  should  ask  you  to  share  in  the  cataloguing  of  our 
Latin  manuscripts,"  Bersot  et  ses  amis,  p.  109. 

145 


ERNEST  RENAN 

for  study  and  reading  in  the  intervals  of  cataloguing.**  In 
the  same  year  he  was  introduced  by  Augustin  Thierry  to  the 
Bevue  des  deux  Mondes,  to  which  he  contributed  for  a  time 
one  article  or,  at  most,  two  a  year. 

The  story  of  his  initial  contribution  rejected  by  the  editor 
is  told  in  the  preface  of  New  Studies  in  Religious  History 
(1884),  where  the  essay,  with  some  changes  and  additions, 
was  first  published.  "The  article  on  Buddhism  was  com- 
posed during  the  last  months  of  the  life  of  Eugene  Burnouf . 
It  was  destined  for  the  Bevue  des  deux  Maudes  and  was  the 
first  piece  of  work  presented  by  me  to  that  magazine.  M. 
Buloz,  the  least  Buddhistic  of  men,  praised  certain  minor 
points,  but  would  not  believe  that  the  substance  of  the  arti- 
cle was  true.  A  real  Buddhist,  in  flesh  and  bones,  seemed 
to  him  incredible.  To  all  my  proofs,  he  answered  inflexibly, 
'  It  is  not  possible  that  there  are  people  so  stupid  as  that. '  ' ' 
Possibly  Buloz  had  other  reasons  for  the  rejection,  for  the 
article  is  one  of  the  author's  least  interesting  compositions. 

Renan's  actual  collaboration  began  with  the  issue  of  De- 
cember 15,  in  which  was  published  *  *  Mahomet  et  les  origines 
de  1 'islamisme, "  republished  in  the  Studies  in  Religious 
History  with  changes  and  corrections,  which,  though  not  so 
numerous  as  those  in  the  essays  from  La  Liberie  de  Penser, 
are  still  considerable.  The  modifications  of  style  are  gener- 
ally in  the  direction  of  exactness,  exemplified  in  the  frequent 
substitution  of  nouns  for  pronouns  where  the  antecedent  was 
at  all  vague.*^ 

In  spite  of  Buloz,  Renan  managed  to  work  into  this  essay 

*'For  a  reminiscence  of  this  work  under  the  direction  of  Hase,  see 
Preface  to  the  General  Index  of  the  Origins  of  Chrisiianity ,  p.  ii. 

="  There  was  a  reprint  of  this  article,  a  pamphlet  of  thirty-nine 
pages,  from  the  press  of  Gerdes,  publisher  of  the  Bevue  des  deux 
Mondes.  See  G.  Vicaire,  Manuel  de  I' amateur  de  livres  du  XIX 
Steele,  where  many  such  reprints  are  listed.  For  one  of  these  the 
author  is  thanked  by  Bersot,  who  regards  the  essay  with  fervent 
admiration,  **a  true  piece  of  French  erudition  and  of  philosophy  k  la 
Burnouf."    Bersot  et  ses  amis,  p.  105. 

146 


PERIODICAL  ESSAYS 

about  two  pages  (pp.  237-238)  from  the  rejected  article  on 
Buddhism.  The  reflections  suggested  by  the  story  of  Ma- 
homet are  identical  with  ideas  in  The  Future  of  Science. 
The  author  inculcates  his  conception  of  critical  method;  he 
expresses  the  principle  of  spontaneous  birth,  at  a  given 
moment  and  under  invariable  law,  as  opposed  both  to  crea- 
tion and  to  the  work  of  reflective  reason,  the  delicate  task  of 
science  being  to  divine  origins  by  means  of  traces  which 
remain ;  he  maintains  that  things  are  beautiful  only  by  what 
humanity  sees  in  them,  that  sentiments  have  their  value  in- 
dependently of  the  object  that  excites  them,  that  a  race 
produces  its  masterpiece  and  retires  as  though  used  up  by 
the  effort,  that  man  is  too  weak  long  to  bear  the  divine  mis- 
sion and  those  alone  are  immaculate  whom  God  early  frees 
from  the  apostolic  burden ;  ideas  never  long  absent  from  his 
religious  studies.  He  clings  to  the  theory  of  the  monotheism 
of  the  Semites,  stating  it  in  the  striking  phrase,  which  he 
did  not  hesitate  to  repeat  elsewhere:  "The  Semitic  race 
has  never  conceived  the  government  of  the  universe  other- 
wise than  as  an  absolute  monarchy."  Scattered  here  and 
there  we  find  sly  digs  at  the  theologians.  "It  is  clear,"  he 
remarks,  "that  Buddha,  a  son  of  God,  an  exalted  wonder- 
worker, was  beyond  the  temper  of  this  race."  (P.  234.)  The 
implication  throughout  is  that  religions,  not  excluding  Chris- 
tianity, belong  to  a  class  of  human  products  which  pass 
through  certain  phases  and  may  be  studied  by  the  same 
comparative  method  that  applies  to  all  historical  phenomena. 
And  he  concludes  with  a  statement  of  the  right  of  nations,  as 
of  individuals,  to  perfect  freedom  of  conscience. 

Mohammedanism  indeed  was  not  the  subject  that  was 
chiefly  agitating  Kenan's  spirit  in  December,  1851.  The 
Coup  d'Etat,  validated  as  it  was  by  the  enormous  majority 
given  by  universal  suffrage,  achieved  the  repression  of 
thought  begun  in  1849,  when  the  reactionary  forces  dom- 
inated the  legislature  and  the  ministry.    The  education  law 

147 


ERNEST  RENAN 

put  through  the  assembly  by  Falloux  at  the  behest  of  the 
clericals  (March  15,  1850)  was  a  serious  blow  to  the  Uni- 
versity, already  wounded  by  his  administration.^^  Candi- 
dates for  professorships  who  did  not  please  the  minister  of 
public  education  or  his  advisers  failed  of  appointment  and 
a  goodly  number  already  teaching  were  deprived  of  their 
chairs,  among  these  being  Kenan's  friend,  Amedee  Jacques. 
With  the  Coup  d'Etat,  reaction  seemed  completely  in  con- 
trol. The  young  liberals  were  filled  with  shame;  they  felt 
humiliated,  even  disgraced.  As  Renan  wrote  in  later  years : 
*'The  youth  of  to-day  can  hardly  understand  the  character 
of  those  years  of  reaction  that  followed  1848,  years  in  which 
the  enemies  of  the  human  mind  reigned  as  masters. ' '  ^* 
"Those  gloomy  years  1849,  1850,  1851,"  as  he  calls  them 
on  another  page,  "when  the  human  mind  was  governed  by 
its  enemies,  and  the  first  ten  years  of  the  Empire,  when  ev- 
erything not  mediocre  or  frivolous  was  considered  danger- 
ous. ' '  ^"  Jules  Simon,  * '  my  intimate  and  proved  friend, ' '  ^^ 
gave  up  his  chair  at  the  Sorbonne  and  went  into  temporary 
exile  in  Belgium,  and  Amedee  Jacques  buried  himself  for 
good  and  all  in  South  America,  The  situation  was  disheart- 
ening. The  liberals  of  France  needed  all  their  philosophy. 
For  consolation  they  must  mount  to  heights  of  historical 
contemplation,  from  which  the  miseries  of  the  day  should 
sink  into  insignificance  because  viewed  in  their  relation  to 
the  whole.  "To  him  who  has  so  many  times  seen  unfolded 
the  apparent  caprice  of  human  affairs,"  wrote  Renan  of 
Augustin  Thierry,  "what  is  one  incident  more?  For  him 
who  so  eminently  possesses  the  experience  of  the  past,  the 


""Dupanloup  wrote  that  the  law  of  1850  was  not  only  directed 
against  the  University,  but  was  intended  to  ruin  the  :fieole  Normale. 
Barth^Iemy  Saint-Hilaire,  Victor  Cousin,  vol.  i,  p.  531. 

"  Feuilles  dctachees,  p.  299. 

*''  MManges  d'histoire  et  de  voyages,  p.  xiii. 

«  Letter  to  Bersot,  December  28,  1852. 

148 


PERIODICAL  ESSAYS 

experience  of  the  present,  it  seems,  should  count  for  little."  '^ 
Under  the  new  constitution,  every  functionary  of  the 
state — and  teachers  were  such  functionaries — was  called 
upon  to  swear  fidelity  both  to  the  constitution  and  to  the 
president.  About  forty  professors  refused  and  lost  their 
positions,  and  in  this  number  were  several  of  Kenan's 
friends  and  acquaintances,  such  as  Barthelemy  Saint-Hilaire, 
administrator  of  the  College  de  France,  Haureau,  keeper  of 
manuscripts  in  the  Bibliotheque  Nationale,  and,  more  mod- 
est, Bersot,  professor  in  the  Lycee  at  Versailles!  Thinking 
that  this  was  carrying  a  scruple  too  far,  Renan  wrote  to 
Bersot  urging  him  to  reconsider  his  determination.  Only 
members  of  a  former  administration  and  those  who  had  a  set- 
tled intention  to  conspire  against  the  government  were 
bound  to  refuse  the  oath.  The  refusal  of  others  would  be 
regrettable,  "for,"  says  he,  ** besides  depriving  the  public 
service  of  those  who  could  best  fill  the  positions,  it  implies 
that  everything  done  and  everything  that  happens  is  to  be 
taken  seriously.  For  my  part,  I  should  have  desired  that, 
with  the  exception  of  five  or  six  men,  easy  to  pick  out,  every 
one  without  distinction  should  have  taken  the  oath."  As 
for  himself,  he  has  not  been  asked,  and,  if  asked,  he  is  too 
unimportant  to  make  himself  an  exception  among  his  col- 
leagues. ' '  If  your  decision  is  irrevocable, ' '  he  adds,  *  *  I  beg 
to  press  your  hand  and  say  that  you  have  sinned  by  excess 
of  virtue. ' '  ®^ 

As  usual,  Renan  accepted  what  he  could  not  help,  but  he 
ceased  for  a  quarter  of  a  century  to  be  a  democrat.  In  a 
review  of  Gamier 's  La  Morale  sociale,  published  in  May, 
Renan  had  maintained,  in  the  spirit  of  The  Future  of 
Science,  that  the  multitude  never  governed,  the  sovereignty 

"  Eevtie  des  deux  Mondes,  July  1,  1852,  p.  198,  a  notice  in  the 
Chronique  of  Thierry's  Collection  of  Monuments  of  the  Third  Estate. 

''Letter  to  Bersot,  May  17,  1852.  Hemon,  Bersot  et  ses  Amis,  p. 
108.  Cousin,  though  deprived  of  oflSce,  gave  the  same  advice  to  his 
former  pupils,  and  the  young  Taine  took  much  the  same  view. 

149 


ERNEST  RENAN 

of  the  people  being  at  bottom  merely  the  rule  of  public 
reason,  expressed,  not  by  the  crowd,  but  by  that  part  of  the 
nation  especially  given  to  administrative  studies.^*  This 
theory  was  entirely  upset  by  the  Coup  d'Etat.  He  would 
now  forever  repudiate  universal  suffrage,  because  it  had 
played  such  a  trick.  If  Napoleon  III  is  the  consequence  of 
'89,  he  would  even  repudiate  '89.  Indeed,  in  the  fever  of 
the  first  days  after  the  catastrophe,  he  was  almost  tempted 
to  become  a  legitimist,  and  he  would  still  incline  that  way,  if 
hereditary  transmission  of  power  should  be  found  to  be  the 
only  means  of  escaping  Cassarism,  for  he  is  convinced  that 
civilization  can  not  last  fifty  years  under  such  a  regime.  ^^ 
It  is  civilization  that  he  cares  for,  not  this  or  that  form  of 
government ;  yet,  though  no  longer  a  democrat,  he  is  always 
a  liberal. 

Ill 

However  excited  Renan  may  have  become  at  times  over 
the  political  situation — and  he  was  often  violently  excited 
in  talk,  though  not  in  print — he  always  had  at  his  disposal 
another  world  into  which  such  troubles  could  not  enter. 
The  year  1852  was  one  of  prodigious  labor  in  linguistic  and 
historical  scholarship.^^  In  January  Taschereau  was  named 
adjunct  administrator  of  the  Bibliotheque  Nationale  and 
director  of  catalogues,  charged  with  the  task  of  publishing 
a  full  account  of  the  treasures  of  that  institution.  Reinaud, 
president  of  the  Societe  Asiatique,  became  keeper  of  the 
section  of  oriental  manuscripts,  and  among  his  assistants  was 
Renan,  to  whom  the  Syrian,  Sabean  and  Ethiopian  manu- 
scripts were  assigned.     This  work  was  still  in  progress  in 

'*  Melanges  religieux  et  historiques,  p.  70,  article  reprinted  from  the 
Journal  de  I' instruction  publique,  May  7,  1851. 

^*To  Bersot,  January  14,  1852;  Bersot  et  ses  amis,  p.  104. 

"His  days  were  so  occupied  that  he  could  not  visit  Bersot  at  Ver- 
sailles.   See  letter  of  January  14,  1852,  Bersot  et  ses  anrn,  p.  103. 

150 


PERIODICAL  ESSAYS 

1855.^^  He  also,  as  a  specialist  in  medieval  literature,  pre- 
pared a  careful  and  erudite  study  of  manuscripts  and  church 
history  for  the  use  of  Victor  Le  Clerc  in  the  Histoire  lit- 
teraire  de  la  France.^^  In  addition  to  these  library  tasks, 
he  carried  through  the  press  his  two  theses,  De  philosophia 
peripatetica  apud  Syros  and  Averroes  and  Averroism,^^  and 
obtained  his  degree  of  Doeteur-es-lettres.*°  Meanwhile  he 
was  assiduous  in  his  attendance  at  the  monthly  meetings  of 
the  Societe  Asiatique,  and  in  July  he  was  elected  to  its 
Council,  on  which  he  served  continuously  till  his  death. 

Up  to  this  time,  Renan  had  brought  out  no  book,  his  only 
independent  publications  having  been  reprints  of  contribu- 
tions to  periodicals.*^  Averroes  was  published  by  Auguste 
Durand  and,  as  a  doctor's  dissertation  on  a  nonpopular  sub- 
ject, it  was  published  at  the  author's  expense,  the  cost  being 
1378  francs.*^  This  was  a  large  sum  for  a  poor  man,  but 
Renan  was,  as  usual,  ready  to  sacrifice  the  present  to  the 
future.  The  Latin  dissertation  made  its  way  among  special- 
ists; the  French  dissertation  became  a  standard  work.*^ 


"Journal  Asiatique,  vol.  Ixvi,  p.  576  et  seq. 

•*  Embodied  in  the  essay,  '  *  Joachim  de  Flore  et  1  '6vangile  eternel, ' ' 
Nouvelles  ttudes  d'histoire  religieuse,  p.  217  et  seq.,  first  published  in 
the  Bevue  des  deux  Mondes,  July  1,  1866. 

"  The  first  was  presented  to  the  »Societe  Asiatique  July  3,  and  the 
second  September  13.  On  May  17  Eenan  told  Bersot  that  the  Latin 
thesis  was  printed  and  the  French  thesis  was  in  press. 

*•  Renan  sustained  his  thesis  before  the  Faculty  on  August  11,  1852, 
and  received  the  congratulations  of  his  judges  and  the  doctor's  de- 
gree. See  AtheruBum  fran^ais  for  1853,  p.  5,  a  review  of  the  Latin 
thesis  by  A.  Charma.  Averroes  is  reviewed  in  the  following  number, 
p.  47,  and  Renan  is  warned  against  skepticism. 

"  For  an  incomplete  list  of  these,  see  G.  Vicaire,  Manuel  de  I  'amateur 
de  livres  du  xix'  eiecle,  Paris,  1907.  The  most  notable  are  "De 
I'origine  du  langage, "  1848,  and  "  ficlaircissements  tir6s  des  langues 
semitiques  sur  quelques  points  de  la  prononeiation  gr^cque, "  1849,  from 
the  Journal  general  de  l'instru,ction  publique,  July  7,  18,  21,  25. 

^'In  a  letter  dated  November  29,  1852,  to  Bersot,  who  is  thinking  of 
publishing  his  Essay  on  Providence,  Renan  gives  this  detail.  See 
Hdmon,  Bersot  et  ses  amis,  p.  126. 

**A  second  edition  of  Averroes,  revised  and  augmented,  was  pub- 
lished by  Michel  L6vy  f  rSres  in  1861. 

151 


ERNEST  RENAIvi 

Renan's  Latin  thesis,""  approved  by  the  Faculty  of  Let- 
ters February  7, 1852,  traces  the  Aristotelian  philosophy  from 
Alexandria  to  the  Nestorian  Syrians,  from  the  Syrians  to  the 
Persians  and  Arabs,  and  more  slightly,  from  the  Arabs  to 
the  Schoolmen.  Working  upon  fragments  and  upon  names 
of  lost  works,  and  piecing  together  indications  derived  from 
the  manuscripts  that  have  survived,  Kenan  follows  the 
course  of  philosophical  studies  in  the  Syrian  schools  from 
the  fourth  century  to  the  eighth,  and  traces  the  influence  of 
these  heretical  Christian  teachers  and  physicians  (Nestorians 
and  Jacobites)  in  shaping  the  development  of  Aristotelian 
learning  in  Bagdad,  where  new  Arabic  translations  were 
made  by  them,  and  not  at  all  by  the  Arabs,  in  the  ninth  and 
tenth  centuries.  It  was  after  this  that  the  Arabs  in  turn 
became  teachers  of  their  former  masters.  In  addition  to 
published  documents,  the  author  makes  copious  use  of  man- 
uscripts examined  by  him  in  Italy  or  in  the  Bibliotheque 
Imperiale,  and  especially  exploits  his  discoveries  in  the 
British  Museum,  which  furnish  an  essential  link  in  his  argu- 
ment. This  voyage  over  an  obscure  epoch,  the  finding  of  an 
uninterrupted  current  from  Alexandria  to  Arabia,  the  mar- 
shalling of  facts,  the  divining  of  the  nature  of  lost  treatises, 
the  search  for  the  least  trace  of  evidence  and  the  subtle  dis- 
covery of  its  bearing,  all  shadow  forth  the  labor  of  later 
years.  The  little  pamphlet  is,  indeed,  a  direct  precursor  of 
the  Origins  of  Christiamty.  Written  by  obligation  in  Latin, 
it  avoids  the  Tullianism  that  Renan  hated  and  even  here 
and  there  presents  really  characteristic  phrases,  though 
most  of  it  is  sufficiently  matter-of-fact  for  its  destination.*^ 


**  De  phUosophia  peripatetica  apud  Syros  commentationem  historicam 
scripsit  E.  Eenan.    Parisis,  apud  A.  Durand,  bibliopolam,  1852. 

*•  The  concluding  sentence  furnishes  the  most  obvious  example : 
Quod  omen  detestabile  [that  we  should  sink  to  the  intellectual  level  of 
the  Syrian  schoolmen]  Deus  O.  M.  avertat,  ne  prius  nos  e  medio  tollat, 
quam  videamus,  ingravescente  stoliditate^  bonas  artes  atque  humanitatis 
llberalem  cultum  pessum  ire. 

152 


AVERROES 

Averroes  and  Averroism,  undertaken  with  the  encourage- 
ment of  Cousin  and  Le  Clerc,  is  in  large  part  the  sort  of 
monograph  lauded  in  The  Future  of  Science^  an  individual 
sacrifice  to  the  progress  of  historical  studies.  As  a  patient 
exploration  of  a  tedious  stretch  of  the  human  spirit,  it 
could  hardly  be  surpassed  either  for  the  tediousness  of  the 
stretch  or  the  patience  of  the  exploration.  Yet  Renan  could 
not  regret  the  years  spent  in  digging  up  and  dusting  off  the 
mummies  of  metaphysical  theory  and  tracing  their  uninter- 
esting and  half-effaced  features.  Even  if  his  subject  was 
useless  practically,  the  history  of  the  human  spirit  is  the 
greatest  of  subjects,  and  the  nineteenth  century  is  the  cen- 
tury of  history.  In  spite  of  the  hours  spent  in  reading  un- 
readable books,  Renan  was  not  infected.  "Began  Renan *s 
Averroes,"  wrote  John  Morley  in  1897.  **  There  is  such  a 
mixture  of  scholar  and  writer  as  no  longer  exists  to  my  knowl- 
edge. And  what  a  mixture  it  is,  when  the  world  is  so  lucky 
as  to  find  it. "  *^  In  the  midst  of  the  dry  est  enumeration  will 
come  a  flash  of  fancy  or  an  apt  reflection.  ' '  Padua  is  noth- 
ing but  the  Latin  Quarter  of  Venice";  "Many  delicate 
spirits  prefer  belief  to  an  incredulity  that  involves  bad 
taste";  "This  barbarism  began  to  be  tiresome,  even  at  Pa- 
dua"— ^such  are  specimen  asides. 

In  no  book  addressed  to  the  general  public  is  Renan 's 
method  so  exact  in  plan  and  statement.  Beginning  with  the 
life  and  doctrines  of  Averroes,  he  proceeds  to  the  Jewish 
translators  of  the  fourteenth  century — the  origin  of  his 
later  interest  in  the  rabbis  of  France — and  to  the  opposition 
of  the  scholastic  philosophers,  a  topic  involving  a  notable 
piece  of  intuition  based  upon  erudition — his  conjectural 
resurrection  of  the  unknown  Franciscans  and  masters  of  arts 
of  the  University  of  Paris  against  whom  the  great  doctors 
fulminated.  After  this,  we  pass  to  the  development  of  the 
legend  of  Averroes,  the  most  interesting  chapter  in  the 

*•  Morley 's  Eecollections,  voL  ii,  67. 

153 


ERNEST  RENAN 

book,  and  to  the  prolongation  of  his  reputation  in  the  schools 
of  northern  Italy  through  the  seventeenth  century. 

The  reference  to  both  manuscripts  and  early  printed  books 
must  have  left  the  examiners  in  a  state  of  utter  helplessness, 
for  Renan  had  lived  in  a  strange  society  with  which  they 
could  have  had  only  a  bowing  acquaintance.  Every  asser- 
tion is  founded  on  a  text.  In  addition,  these  notes  include, 
as  was  to  be  expected  in  a  thesis,  references  to  the  works  of 
other  investigators  in  the  field,  and  are  not  entirely  confined, 
as  in  his  great  histories,  to  the  original  authorities.  Though 
his  statements  have  the  impartiality  of  scientific  criticism, 
one  feels  his  sympathy  with  incredulity,  his  admiration  for 
Frederic  II,  and  his  horror  of  somber  fanaticism,  whether 
of  Islam  or  Rome,  when  it  destroys  science  and  philosophy. 
Perhaps  the  most  original  passages  in  the  book  are  the  sec- 
tion in  which  he  deals  with  Averroes  and  Thomas  Aquinas 
in  the  paintings  of  the  fourteenth  century,  and  that  in  which 
he  equates  art  and  philosophy,  contrasting  Platonic  Florence 
with  Aristotelian  Venice.  Here,  as  in  his  Life  of  Jesus,  what 
he  saw  in  his  travels  becomes  an  integral  factor  in  his  book. 

Although  Averroism  stood  in  a  certain  sense  for  freedom 
of  thought,  Renan  finds  satisfaction  in  the  conclusion  to 
which  his  study  leads  him,  the  conclusion  that  it  was  positive 
and  experimental  science  which  "swept  away  the  mass  of 
sophisms  and  puerile  and  empty  queries  heaped  up  by  scho- 
lasticism." And  he  has  a  certain  delight  also  in  the  irony 
of  fate.  * '  It  was  the  destiny  of  Averroes  to  serve  as  a  pre- 
text for  the  most  diverse  hatreds  in  the  conflicts  of  human 
thought,  and  to  cover  with  his  name  doctrines  which  surely 
never  entered  his  mind."  (P.  432.)  A  sentence  from  the 
preface  must  also  be  quoted,  since  even  at  this  early  date  it 
elicited  reprobation:  "Who  knows  if  finesse  of  mind  does 
not  consist  in  abstaining  from  drawing  conclusions V' " 

*"  Averroes  was  reviewed  in  the  Debats  by  Daremberg  July  12,  1853; 
in  the  AtluirujEijtm  by  Alfred  Maury,  December  28,  1852;  in  the  Bevne 

154 


HELPFUL  FRIENDS 

A  copy  of  this  book,  with  an  accompanying  letter,  was 
sent  by  the  author  to  Sainte-Beuve.  This  proceeding  may 
have  been  prompted  by  Renan  's  helpful  friend,  fimile  Egger, 
who  had  long  been  in  correspondence  with  the  great  critic,** 
but  such  an  act  could  not  have  been  unusual,  for  we  find 
Taine  writing  in  1857  and  sending  his  French  Philosophers 
to  both  Sainte-Beuve  and  Renan,  neither  of  whom  he  had 
met.*^  To  Renan  Sainte-Beuve  made  a  formal  reply  in  which 
he  thanks  and  compliments  the  author,  utters  a  page  of  re- 
flections on  incredulity,  and  excuses  himself  for  not  treating 
the  subject  in  the  Constitutionnel  on  the  ground  that  it  is 
too  heavy  for  his  public.^"  This  is  apparently  the  beginning 
of  the  relations  between  the  two,  distant  at  first,  but  in  the 
course  of  ten  yeare  becoming  intimate.  The  Revue  des  deux 
Mandes  was  not  the  bond,  for  just  before  Renan  began  his 
connection  with  that  periodical,  Sainte-Beuve  had  with- 
drawn, nothing  from  his  pen  appearing  there  between  Sep- 
tember 15,  1849,  and  i\Iay  15,  1863.  All  his  time  was  occu- 
pied with  his  Causeries  and  his  Port-Royal. 

IV 

Hitherto  Renan 's  friends  had,  as  was  natural,  been  almost 
wholly  of  the  university  circle.    This  circle,  it  is  true,  was 

de  I'instruction  publique  by  Bersot,  December  20,  1852.  Bersot  be- 
came a  regular  reviewer  of  Eenan's  books.  In  this  same  Eevue,  he 
wrote  of  the  Lan^ues  semitique»,  the  £tudes  d'histoire  religieuse  and 
Job;  and  in  the  Debats  of  Essaisi  de  vwrale  et  de  critique,  Vie  de 
Jesus  and  St.  Paul.  Eenan  is  proud  of  his  friendship  and  after  each 
review  sends  a  Itj^ter  of  thanks.  He  agrees  in  general  with  Bersot, 
there  being  between  them,  as  he  expresses  it,  only  the  thickness  of  a 
few  words,  his  correspondent  putting  more  definiteness  into  his  philo- 
sophical language.  ' '  I  have  a  little  less  confidence, ' '  adds  Renan,  ' '  in 
tiie  competence  of  human  language  to  express  the  ineffable.  But,  after 
all,  it  is  only  a  question  of^  more  or  less, ' '  1853.  Bersot  et  ses  amis,  p. 
133.  It  may  be  added  that  Bersot,  although  a  freethinker,  got  along 
perfectly  well  with  Cousin  and  even  with  Montalembert. 

**See  Eevue  de  I'hisioire  litteraire  de  la  France  (1905),  p.  107  et  seq. 

•  Taine,  Sa  Vie  et  sa  correspondence,  vol.  ii,  p.  147. 

••  Nouvelle  Correspondance  de  Sainte-Beuve,  p.  130. 

155 


ERNEST  RENAN 

not  entirely  distinct  from  the  literary  group,  for  many  of 
the  leading  contributors  to  the  periodicals  and  most  of  the 
authors  of  serious  works  were  teachers,  administrators  or 
librarians.  In  the  journals  they  performed  the  delicate  task 
of  reviewing  one  another's  books  and,  in  doing  so,  trying  to 
reconcile  friendship  with  critical  vigor. 

Renan  early  perceived  that  success  in  the  career  he  had 
marked  out  for  himself  depended  on  the  good  will  of  the 
leaders  in  the  field,  "the  protection  of  the  great,"  as  he 
calls  it.^^  Such  good  will  and  help  be  secured,  and  he  was 
not  unmindful  of  his  benefactors.  In  the  Becolleciians  of 
Childhood  and  Youth  (p.  370)  he  names  six  who,  in  his 
early  years,  chiefly  gave  him  aid  and  encouragement :  Emile 
Egger,  professor  of  Greek  in  the  Faculty  of  Letters ;  Eugene 
Burnouf,  professor  of  Sanscrit  in  the  College  de  France; 
Adolphe  Gamier,  professor  of  philosophy  in  the  College  de 
France;  Victor  Le  Clerc,  professor  of  Latin  eloquence  and 
dean  of  the  Faculty  of  Letters;  Victor  Cousin,  the  greatest 
power  in  the  Council  of  Education;  and  Augustin  Thierry, 
regarded  as  the  foremost  historical  scholar  of  his  day.  Cousin 
had  done  the  young  scholar  favors,  and  took  frequent  long 
walks  with  him,  expatiating  on  the  history  of  various  houses 
and  their  seventeenth-century  owners,^^  but,  surrounded  by 
disciples  who  reverenced  every  word  of  the  master,  the  great 
man  was  hard  to  deal  with  and  could  never  be  called  a  pa- 
tron of  Renan.  It  was  quite  otherwise  with  Burnouf  and 
Le  Clerc,  who  were  proud  to  bring  him  forward  as  a  prom- 
ising pupil  whom  they  had  trained.  Egger  was  even  more 
helpful.  He  was  not  only  a  friend  and  a  guide  in  classical 
studies,^*  but  he  introduced  his  pupil  to  the  Journal  de 
Vi/nstruction  publique,  for  which  Renan  wrote  book  reviews 

"Letter  to  Liart,  March  22,  1845;  Fragments  intvmes,  p.  270. 
'*Lo  BSforme  inteUectuelle  et  morale,  p.  15. 

"  In  later  life  Eenan  used  to  exchange  Latin  verses  with  Egger  as  a 
summer  amusement.    D^bats,  September  4,  1885. 

156 


HELPFUL  FRIENDS 

up  to  the  time  of  his  connection  with  the  Journal  des  Dehats, 
and  he  in  all  probability  also  presented  him  to  the  great 
Thierry  who  was  his  friend.  Gamier 's  helpfulness  was  of  a 
different  sort.  He  was  a  delightful  man  socially  and  Mme. 
Gamier  was  a  woman  of  noted  charm  and  intelligence,  Re- 
nan's  "first  object  of  admiration  in  a  kind  of  beauty  from 
which  he  had  been  weaned  by  theology. ' '  Through  them  the 
recluse  was  brought  into  contact  with  society.  On  March 
21,  1848,  Renan  writes  to  Henriette:  "I  dined  some  days 
since  at  Garnier's.  Profound  sadness  prevailed.  All  the 
frequenters  of  the  salon  were  people  satisfied  with  the  past, 
some  even  personally  attached  to  the  court.  M.  Gamier 
himself  is  little  concerned  with  politics.  M.  Saint-Marc  Gi- 
rardin,  who  was  to  have  joined  the  ministry  of  Mole,  is  deeply 
grieved.  M.  Cousin  speaks  already  of  the  fate  of  Socra- 
tes."®* On  this  occasion  Renan  is  obviously  a  person  of 
small  importance,  but  in  four  years  things  had  changed.  A 
report  of  another  dinner  at  Garnier  's  in  1852  shows  how  the 
brilliant  young  men  of  the  schools  already  looked  up  to 
him.  Prevost-Paradol,  after  describing  two  traveling  schol- 
ars who  were  present,  exclaims  that  the  real  good  fortune  of 
the  evening  was  his  meeting  "the  great  Renan,"  to  whom 
he  has  become  attached  through  a  quarter  of  an  hour's  talk 
and  whom  he  intends  to  visit  at  hLs  library."'® 

Most  important  of  these  early  friends  was  Augustin 
Thierry.     Of  him  Renan  writes :  ®® 

"M.  Augustin  Thierry  was  a  true  spiritual  father  to  me.  His 
advice  is  always  present  to  my  mind,  and  it  is  to  him  that  I  owe 
the  avoidance  of  certain  offensive  faults  in  my  way  of  writing, 
faults  which  I  should  not,  perhaps,  have  discovered  by  myself. 
It  is  through  him  that  I  became  acquainted  with  the  Scheffer  fam- 
ily, to  which  I   owe  a  wife  who  has  always  been  so  perfectly 

**Eeviie  de  Paris,  April  15,  1896,  p.  675. 

"Letter  to  Gr4ard,  November  24,  1852;  Gr6ard,  PrSvost-Paradol, 
p.  204. 

••Souvenirs,  p.  371. 

157 


ERNEST  RENAN 

adjusted  to  the  rather  fixed  conditions  of  my  program  of  life,  that 
I  am  sometimes  tempted,  when  I  reflect  on  so  many  happy  coin- 
cidences,  to  believe  in   predestination." 

The  bond  of  sympathy  between  the  unknown  author  of 
The  Future  of  Science  and  the  famous  historian  is  made 
obvious  by  the  well-known  passage  from  the  preface  of 
Thierry's  Ten  Years  of  Historical  Studies:  "Blind  and  suf- 
fering without  hope  and  almost  without  intermission,  I  can 
bear  witness,  not  doubtful  when  coming  from  me,  that  there 
is  in  the  world  something  better  than  material  force,  better 
than  fortune,  better  even  than  health,  and  that  is  devotion  to 
science. ' ' 

In  1852  Thierry  was  living  at  No.  4  rue  Montparnasse, 
where  he  received  that  society  which  he  so  much  loved, 
friends,  admirers,  intelligent  women,  young  men  who  came 
for  advice  and  encouragement.  Seated  in  an  armchair,  in 
which  his  faithful  servant  had  placed  him,  he  greeted  all 
comers  with  voice  and  hand,  listening  to  the  news,  question- 
ing his  visitors  with  unfailing  interest  about  everything, 
great  or  small,  pronouncing  authoritative  judgments  upon 
the  events  or  the  books  of  the  day,  and  always  ready  for  the 
latest  current  anecdote.  *  *  Above  all  he  loved  the  young  men, 
and  he  would  face  any  obstacle  in  order  to  do  them  a  serv- 
ice."" Not  only  had  he  happily  dissuaded  Renan  from 
publishing  The  Future  of  Science,  but  he  had  to  a  consider- 
able extent  launched  him  into  the  larger  world  of  Paris  by 
presenting  him  to  the  Bevue  des  deux  Mondes  and  acquaint- 
ing him  with  various  friends  who  visited  his  house.  Renan 
made  researches  for  Thierry  in  the  library  and  even  became 
associated  with  an  intimate  group,  a  sort  of  privy  council, 
which  included  La  Villemarque,  Egger  and  other  scholars, 
to  whom  the  historian  submitted  his  historical  doubts  and 
scruples.^^ 

"Ferdinand  Valentin,  Aiigugtin  Thierry,  pp.  36,  37. 
'*IbicL,  p.  38. 

158 


HELPFUL  FRIENDS 

From  early  manhood  the  Scheffer  brothers,  Ary  and  Henri, 
had  been  intimate  with  Augustin  Thierry,  with  whom  they 
had  been  fellows  in  revolutionary  liberalism  at  La  Grange, 
Lafayette's  country  home.^^  In  settled  age  the  intimacy 
continued.  In  1840  Henri  painted  a  celebrated  portrait  of 
his  old  comrade,  and  Ary  was  a  frequent  visitor  at  the 
house  of  the  blind  and  paralytic  historian.^"  Renan  had 
therefore  ample  opportunity  of  here  becoming  acquainted 
with  the  Scheffer  family,  to  whom  he  soon  became  strongly 
attached.  The  sympathy  between  the  distinguished  painters 
and  himself,  indeed,  extended  from  art  to  political  and 
moral  ideas,  for  both  brothers  were  enlightened  liberals,  in 
spite  of  Ary  Scheffer 's  close  and  affectionate  association 
with  the  house  of  Orleans. 

The  gain  of  new  friends  was,  however,  offset  by  the  loss  of 
his  most  admired  teacher  and  patron,  Eugene  Bumouf, 
who  died  May  28,  1852,  at  the  age  of  fifty-one.  An  apprecia- 
tion from  the  pen  of  Renan  appeared  in  the  Moniteur  uni- 
versel  for  June  13,  probably  the  only  article,  except  his  re- 
ports, ever  contributed  by  him  to  that  official  journal.  He 
had  not  as  yet  obtained  access  to  the  Debats,  and  a  eulogy 
under  Necrologie  could  in  no  degree  be  thought  to  commit 
him  to  the  political  policies  he  abhorred.  Renan 's  article 
was  signed,  as  was  usual  with  important  obituaries  in  the 
Moniteur.  In  it  Burnouf  is  held  up  as  an  example  of  great 
abilities  consecrated  to  mmute  philological  scholarship;  of 
brilliant  talents  refusing  publicity,  and  of  learning  heedless 
of  its  claims  to  the  priority  of  discoveries ;  of  erudition,  not 
for  show,  not  for  the  mere  satisfaction  of  curiosity  or  the 

"The  Due  de  Broglie  in  his  Souvenirs  tells  of  meeting  Ary  Scheffer 
at  La  Grange  in  1817.  The  other  young  men  in  the  company  he  does 
not  remember.  It  is  perhaps  worth  noting  that  about  this  time  Thierry 
as  a  journalist  contributed  a  few  articles  on  painting  and  music  of  a 
strangely  political  color  to  the  papers  with  which  he  was  connected. 
Bevue  d'histoire  Utteraire  de  la  France,  1905,  p.  612, 

"See  Mrs.  Grote's  l^ife  of  Ary  Scheffer, 


ERNEST  RENAN 

love  of  difficulties  vanquished,  but  for  the  advancement  of 
the  history  of  the  human  spirit. 

It  is  easy  to  see  that  Renan  is  depicting  the  model  he  had 
chosen  for  his  own  career.  With  aptitudes  that  might  read- 
ily have  brought  him  wide  popularity,  Bumouf,  he  asserts, 
preferred  his  more  serious  gifts.  Study  was  to  him  a  duty, 
family  life  a  delicious  happiness.  Though  he  had  an  early 
thirst  for  glory,  he  later  attained  the  unalterable  peace  of  a 
man  who  knows  no  judge  but  his  own  conscience.  *  *  This  life 
wholly  consecrated  to  higher  things,"  the  article  concludes, 
"this  example  of  a  man  possessed  by  the  disinterested  pas- 
sion for  truth,  with  a  rare  genius  for  its  satisfaction,  will 
remind  us  that,  even  if  glory  is  not  for  all,  yet  to  all  are 
open  the  pure  joys  of  study  and  of  duty  done." 

Such  was,  indeed,  the  philosophic  scholar  prefigured  in 
The  Future  of  Science;  yet  in  one  respect  the  pupil  was  to 
differ  from  his  master. 

The  proud  and  noble  ways  of  the  older  masters  [he  remarks] 
rejecting  as  unworthy  every  effort  to  make  instruction  attractive 
and  easy,  suppose  in  the  pupil  a  will  power,  a  resolution,  a  dis- 
interestedness, which  are  to-day  very  rare.  Scientific  work,  be- 
sides, includes  two  quite  distinct  functions:  The  genius  of  dis- 
covery, the  work  of  original  research,  and  the  art  of  making  the 
results  accessible  to  the  public.  It  is  only  by  the  same  person 
that  these  two  roles  can  be  properly  filled.  Science  is  generally 
injured  by  interpreters  who  set  themselves  to  speak  for  her  with- 
out knowledge  of  her  methods  and  procedures. 

For  his  own  part,  Renan  seems  already  resolved  to  be 
both  an  abstruse  investigator  for  specialists  and  an  untech- 
nical  writer  who  will  charm  and  inform  the  general 
public.'^ 

"  This  article  is  reprinted  with  very  few  verbal  alterations,  e.  g., 
"voild  pourquoi"  for  "c'est  ainsi  que,"  " aux  fonctions  d'inspecteur 
general  de  I'enseignement  supeneur"  for  *'aux  plus  hautes  fonctions 
de  I'enseignement,"  in  Questions  contemporaines,  1868. 

160 


JOURNAL  DES  DEBATS 


The  next  important  step  forward  in  Kenan's  career  was 
his  connection  with  the  Journal  des  Debats,  the  foremost 
liberal  newspaper  of  Paris.  According  to  his  own  account, 
the  opening  came  in  April  or  May,  1853.  Reinaud,  presi- 
dent of  the  Societe  Asiatique  and  professor  in  the  School 
of  Oriental  Languages,  and  Derenbourg,  a  Jewish  scholar 
of  Germanic  birth,  but  a  naturalized  Frenchman,  had  just 
brought  out  a  new  edition  of  Silvestre  de  Sacy  *s  commentary 
on  the  Seances  of  Hariri.  Ustazade  Silvestre  de  Sacy,  son 
of  the  great  orientalist,  and  now  director  of  the  Debats^ 
asked  Reinaud  to  assign  one  of  his  pupils  to  write  a  review 
of  the  work  for  the  newspaper,  and  Reinaud  naturally  se- 
lected Renan.  "I  went,"  says  the  story,  "to  present  my  ar- 
ticle to  M,  Ustazade,  and  he  was  pleased  with  it,  perceiving 
a  certain  care  in  the  use  of  language.  Consequently  he  was 
kind  enough  to  ask  me  to  treat  in  his  paper  subjects  that 
pertained  to  my  studies  or  such  others  as  might  suggest  any 
ideas  to  me. ' '  ®^  For  the  rest  of  his  life  Renan  was  a  more  or 
less  regular,  though  not  very  frequent,  contributor  to  the 
Dehats.  From  1853  to  1860  he  wrote  about  forty  book  re- 
views, notices  and  announcements,  the  most  important  of 
which  have  been  republished  in  various  collections. 

We  learn  from  Taine  that  the  Dehats  was  an  incomparable 
school. 

On  the  second  floor  [says  he,  in  a  description  of  the  dingy  of- 
fices] is  a  tiled  room,  furnished  with  a  screen,  two  ink-spotted 
tables,  a  water- jug  and  a  glass.  There  you  see  statesmen,  bankers, 
great  writers,  scholars,  celebrated  musicians.  They  come  and 
go,  talk  of  all  sorts  of  things  with  remarkable  freedom,  equality 
and  frankness;  wealth  and  rank  are  left  outside  the  door;  they 
seek  only  the  pleasure  of  discussion  and  thought.  Here  no  one 
plays  any  part;  pretentious  phrases  would  be  held  in  abhorrence; 

**Feuilles  ditacUes,  p.  128, 

161 


ERNEST  RENAN 

the  main  thing  is  to  utter  your  opinion  with  arguments  and  anec- 
dotes in  the  shortest  and  least  tedious  possible  way;  it  is  con- 
versation in  undress.  For  admission  only  two  points  are  required : 
you  should  believe  what  you  say  and  tolerate  what  is  said  by 
others.  That  granted,  you  enter,  and  you  find  a  museum  of  opin- 
ions. In  matters  of  taste,  of  science,  of  philosophy  and  of  re- 
ligion, every  sort  of  thing  meets  and  clashes;  there  is  no  other 
place  where  one  can  see  and  learn  so  much;  open  contradiction, 
multifarious  and  polite,  rapid  and  revealing  words  of  specialists 
and  of  illustrious  men,  precise  recollections  of  eyewitnesses,  little, 
characteristic  details  of  great  events,  a  true  light  thrown  upon 
mattei-s  of  history  disfigured  by  ignorance  or  legend,  exact  and 
blunt  personal  impressions,  observations  brought  from  every  cor- 
ner of  Europe,  authentic  biography  of  every  important  personage 
of  the  time,  such  was  the  mine,  open  every  day,  from  which  all 
could  freely  draw.** 

On  its  literary  side  the  Jaii^rnal  des  Dehats  of  these  years 
was  a  remarkable  periodical.  "Write  with  five  hundred 
people  in  mind,"  was  the  traditian  repeated  to  newcomers. 
In  the  press  it  was  to  be  analogous  to  the  Acaderaie  Frangaise 
in  literature,  a  paper  to  which  the  most  eminent  could  con- 
tribute and  in  which  collaboration  was  an  honor.^*  De  Sacy 
himself  and  Bertin,  owner  and  one  of  the  chief  editors,  wrote 
on  books  as  well  as  on  events.  The  dramatic  and  the  musical 
critics  were  Jules  Janin  and  Hector  Berlioz.  Saint-Marc 
Girardin  produced  a  long  essay  almost  every  fortnight,  some- 
times even  more  frequently.  Philarete  Chasles  discussed 
foreign  literatures,  particularly  English  and  German.  Cu- 
villier-Fleury,  Laboulaye,  Michel  Chevalier,  Louis  Ratis- 
bonne  are  names  constantly  appearing;  and  everything  un- 
der the  press  laws  of  the  Empire  had  to  be  signed.    Littre 

** Nouveaux  essais  de  critique  et  d'histoire,  pp.  167,  167.  This  ar- 
ticle on  de  Sacy,  one  of  Taine's  most  charming  essays,  displaying  an 
unusual  tenderness  and  sympathy,  appeared  in  the  Bevue  de  I'i/nstruc- 
tion  p%blique,  November  18,  1858.  Two  such  eulogists  as  Taine  and 
Eenan  ought  to  be  enough  to  conserve  the  fame  of  this  illustrious 
editor. 

^Feuilleg  dStacMes,  p.  141, 

m 


JOURNAL  DES  DEBATS 

occasionally  sent  an  important  article.  In  1856  Taine  be- 
came as  assiduous  contributor,  joined  in  1857  by  the  aston- 
ishing Prevost-Paradol,  and  two  years  later  by  Bersot.  All 
these  authors  wrote  in  a  department  headed  Varieth,^^  which 
contained  usually  one  long  book  review  of  about  four  col- 
umns— such  were  the  pieces  reprinted  by  Renan  in  his 
Studies  and  Essays — and  often  shorter  notes,  besides  lectures 
opening  new  courses  at  the  University  and  prefaces  and  ex- 
tracts from  forthcoming  volumes.  In  this  part  of  the  paper, 
as  Renan  tells  us,®^  the  principles  of  liberalism,  banished 
from  the  political  leading  articles,  were  insinuated,  and  for- 
bidden ideas  were  conveyed  through  subtle  inferences.  What 
could  not  be  openly  stated,  a  sharp-eyed  reader  could  with 
attention  read  between  the  lines,  the  criticism  of  the  book  in 
hand  being  frequently  but  an  excuse  for  penetrating  thrusts 
at  oppressive  reaction,  thrusts  that  could  neither  be  parried 
nor  resented.  Tlie  tyranny  of  Napoleon  III  had,  therefore, 
two  beneficial  effects  on  liberal  journalism:  it  made  the 
writers  known  to  the  public  and  it  obliged  them  to  acquire 
a  delicate  skill  in  expression  too  often  missing  in  the  un- 
fettered utterance  of  clumsy  freedom  of  speech. 

The  Journal  des  Dehats  was  for  Renan,  as  he  himself  ac- 
knowledges, an  indispensable  school  of  style.  In  spite  of 
the  difference  in  their  religious  views,  M.  de  Sacy  being  a 
sort  of  belated  Jansenist,®^  a  cordial  and  enduring  friend- 
ship sprang  up  between  the  chief  editor  and  his  young  con- 
tributor. On  de  Sacy's  side  was  the  authority  of  years — 
he  was  fifty-two,  Renan  thirty — and  of  an  achieved  position. 

"  In  the  journals  of  the  Empire  the  Varietes  were  distinct  from  the 
FeuUleton,  with  which  some  confuse  them.  Printed  on  the  mid  page, 
they  were  exclusively  literary,  generally  in  the  form  of  book  reviews. 
The  FeuUleton,  printed  at  the  bottom  of  the  first  page,  was  either  a 
novel  or  a  dramatic,  musical  or  art  criticism.  This  is  true  at  least  for 
the  Dehats,  the  Coitstitutionnel  and  the  Moniteur. 

'*FevAlles  deta<:hees,  p.  143. 

"Just  in  these  years  he  was  editing  Introduction  d  la  vie  devote 
de  Frangois  de  Sales,  1855,  and  Lettres  spirituellea  de  F6nelon,  1856. 

163 


ERNEST  RENAN 

Although  he  had  as  yet  published  no  volume,  the  first  col- 
lection of  his  essays,  Varietes  Utteraires,  morales  et  histor- 
iques  appearing  only  in  1858,^^  he  was  sufficiently  celebrated 
as  a  journalist  to  be  elected  in  1854  to  the  Academic  Fran- 
gaise.  **M.  Ustazade,"  says  Renan,  "went  over  my  articles 
with  the  greatest  care.  I  read  them  to  him,  and  on  them 
he  made  remarks  which  formed  the  best  lesson  in  style  that 
I  have  ever  had. "  ^*  It  was  a  lesson  drawn  from  the  classic 
literature  of  the  seventeenth  century  in  modern  times  and 
from  Latin  literature  in  antiquity,  for  such  was  de  Sacy's 
taste,'"  pure  but  exclusive,  and  precisely  what  was  needed 
by  the  scholar  enamored  of  Hebrew,  medieval  mysticism  and 
primitive  archaism.  Even  without  the  Dehats,  Renan  would 
have  been  a  distinguished  writer,  but  it  was  doubtless  to 
this  training  that  he  owed  his  supreme  mastery  of  his  in- 
strument. 

"^Collected  from  the  Debats — Eeviewed  by  Renan  in  the  Beime  des 
deux  Mondes,  August  1.    See  Essais  de  morale  et  de  critique, 

"  Feuilles  dStachees,  p.  134. 

''"Essais  de  morale  et  de  critique,  p.  32;  Taine,  Noveaux  Essais, 
p.  167  et  seq. 


CHAPTER  VI 

(SOWING    REPUTATION    AS    SCHOLAR    AND    AUTHOR 

(1854-1860) 

Throughout  the  years  1854-1860,  Renan  continued  to  contribute 
articles  to  the  Revue  des  deux  Mondes  and  the  Journal  des  Debats, 
most  of  which  have  been  republished  in  collections.  In  1855  he 
published  the  Histoire  generate  et  systeme  compare  des  langues 
semitiques,  which,  with  his  other  philological  papers,  led  to  his 
election  to  the  Academy  of  Inscriptions  and  Belles-Lettres  De- 
cember 5,  1856.  On  September  11,  1856,  he  was  married  to 
Comelie  Scheffer.  Shortly  after  this,  he  was  sought  out  by  Michel 
Levy,  who  made  a  contract  with  him  to  publish  all  his  future 
writings.  The  first  book  to  appear  under  this  contract  was  Etudes 
d'histoire  religieuse  in  1857.  A  son,  Ary,  was  bom  October  28, 
and  Kenan's  mother  came  to  live  with  him  in  Paris.  He  now 
produced  studies  of  contemporaries,  Cousin,  de  Sacy,  and  Lamen- 
nais  for  the  Revue  des  deux  Mondes  and  one  on  Thierry  for  iihe 
Debats.  In  the  autumn  of  1858  he  traveled  in  the  south  of  France 
with  his  wife  and  in  1859  in  the  north  with  Henriette  to  study 
monuments  of  fourteenth  century  art  for  an  article  in  the  His- 
toire litteraire  de  la  France.  A  daughter,  Ernestine,  was  born 
July  20,  1859,  and  died  the  following  March.  In  1859  appeared 
from  the  press  of  Levy,  Essais  d^  morale  et  de  critique  and  a 
translation  of  the  Book  of  Job.  An  essay  on  Beranger  in  the 
Debats  excited  much  comment.  In  1860  he  published  his  transla- 
tion of  the  Song  of  Songs,  and  in  the  Revue  des  deux  Mondes 
two  articles  which  may  be  regarded  as  summing  up  his  philosophy. 
Accepting  a  mission  to  excavate  Phoenician  remains  in  Syria,  he 
left  Paris  with  his  sister  October  18,  1860. 


At  the  age  of  thirty  Renan  was  well  started  upon  his 
career.    He  had  won  recognition  as  a  brilliant,  and  at  the 

165 


ERNEST  RENAN 

same  time,  painstaking  scholar,  and  though  his  situation  at 
the  library  was  modest  in  the  extreme,  his  income  was  suf- 
ficient for  his  needs.  He  had  access  to  the  foremost  review 
and  to  the  foremost  daily  newspaper  of  France,  and  was 
rapidly  gaining  fame  as  a  critical  writer.  He  had  published 
a  book  that  was  to  become  and  remain  a  classic  in  its  field. 
He  had  aroused  enmity,  it  is  true,  though  not  bitterness, 
and  his  friendships  included  famous  leaders  in  art  and  let- 
ters, as  well  as  in  learning.  The  future  gave  promise  of 
literary  eminence.  His  own  plan  was  to  complete  the  history 
of  the  Semitic  languages,  and  after  that  to  throw  some  light 
on  the  history  of  Semitic  religions  and  on  the  origins  of 
Christianity.^  The  story  of  his  next  two  years  is  simply  a 
record  of  his  contributions  to  periodicals  and  of  the  publi- 
cation of  his  second  book.  The  most  important  of  his  articles 
for  this  period  in  the  Bevue  des  deux  Mondes  was  "The 
Poetry  of  the  Celtic  Races"  ^  (May  15,  1854),  an  expression 
of  one  of  his  strongest  and  most  abiding  sentiments,  attach- 
ment to  Brittany  and  the  things  of  Brittany,  **the  region 
where  my  imagination  has  always  delighted  to  roam,  and 
where  I  love  to  take  refuge  as  in  an  ideal  fatherland. ' '  In 
writing  this  piece  he  looked,  he  tells  us,  to  its  moral  and  es- 
thetic value  rather  than  to  any  aim  of  erudition,  and  he  felt 
that,  in  a  way,  it  explained  some  peculiarities  of  his  other 
miscellaneous  essays  as  being  the  work  of  a  Breton  but  little 

^Mudes  d'histoire  religieuse,  p.  sxvi. 

'In  the  magazine  this  essay  was  a  review  of  three  books,  Lady 
Guests'  Mabvnogion,  La  Villeinarqu6 's  Poemes  des  bardes  iretons  du 
sixQme  siecle,  and  E.  Williams  Ecclesiastical  Antiquities  of  the  Cym- 
ry,  a  fact  which  accounts  for  the  special  treatment  of  these  subjects 
in  the  review.  When  republished  in  Essais  de  viorale  et  de  critique, 
the  piece  had  been  thoroughly  revised,  as  Eenan  indeed  indicates  in 
his  note  on  p.  419.  In  addition  to  slighter  corrections,  many  passages, 
especially  pp.  393,  406,  412,  418  and  433,  where  note  1  was  originally 
a  part  of  the  text,  were  largely  recast,  and  several  pages  of  new 
matter,  besides  notes,  were  added;  e.  g.  the  whole  of  part  iv  and 
pp.  430,  middle,  to  435,  top,  all  but  four  scattered  sentences.  For  the 
influence  of  this  essay  on  Matthew  Arnold,  see  Modem  Langttage  Notes, 
February,  1918,  p.  65. 

166 


GROWING  REPUTATION 

removed  from  the  soil.^  Celtic  enthusiasm  is,  in  fact,  the 
personal  equation  for  which  the  reader  must  make  allow- 
ance. 

When  the  traveler  in  the  Armorican  peninsula  leaves  the 
region  nearest  the  mainland,  a  region  which  prolongs  the  gay,  but 
common  physiognomy  of  Normandy  and  Maine,  and  when  he 
thus  enters  the  real  Brittany,  the  Brittany  deserving  of  the  name 
for  its  language  and  its  race,  an  abrupt  change  at  once  makes 
itself  felt.  A  cold  wind,  full  of  vague  sadness,  rises,  and  bears 
the  soul  toward  other  thoughts;  the  tops  of  the  trees  become 
bare  and  twisted;  the  heather  spreads  afar  its  monotonous  tints; 
at  every  step  the  rock  pierces  a  soil  too  poor  to  cover  it;  a  sea 
almost  always  somber  forms  at  the  horizon  a  circle  of  eternal 
moanings.  The  same  contrast  in  the  people:  to  the  Norman 
vulgarity,  to  a  fat  and  sated  population  content  to  live,  full  of 
self-interest,  egotistical  like  all  who  are  habituated  to  enjo3rment, 
there  succeeds  a  race  that  is  timid,  reserved,  living  all  within 
itself,  heavy  in  appearance,  but  with  profound  feeling  and  in  its 
religious  instincts  an  adorable  delicacy.  ...  It  seems,  indeed,  as 
though  you  entered  the  subterranean  strata  of  another  age.  (Pp. 
375,  376.) 

This  poetic  introduction  brings  us  to  a  consideration  of 
the  qualities  of  the  Celtic  race,  its  isolation  making  it  proud 
and  timid,  strong  in  sentiment  and  weak  in  action,  expansive 
at  home  but  clumsy  and  embarrassed  with  strangers;  hard 
to  win,  but  when  once  won,  clinging  to  every  cause  with  un- 
faltering fidelity  and  loyalt3^  These  concentrated  natures 
are  unfit  to  impose  themselves  on  the  world.  Feminine,  if  a 
race  may  be  said  to  possess  sex,  and  lacking  aggressiveness, 
they  yet  offer  an  invincible  resistance.  They  are  romantic ; 
they  dwell  in  the  imagination ;  to  them  all  nature  is  an  en- 
chanted wonderland ;  with  natural  objects  they  live  in  close 
sympathy,  and  the  animals,  so  often  in  their  poetry  trans- 
formed into  intelligent  creatures,  are  especially  their  friends 
and  fellows. 

'Egsais  de  morale  et  de  critique,  p.  xviii 

167 


ERNEST  RENAN 

With  these  traits  in  mind,  Renan  reviews  at  length  the 
Mabinogion,  the  bardic  songs  and  legends  of  the  Breton 
saints,  and  shows  the  influence  of  the  Celts  on  the  ideals  of 
chivalry,  the  gentleness  of  this  race  being  contrasted  with 
Teutonic  barbarity.  Particularly  emphasized  is  the  almost 
mystical  devotion  to  woman,  and  attention  is  also  directed  to 
peculiarities  in  the  medieval  treatment  of  the  marvelous  de- 
rived from  Arthurian  legend.  **A  forgotten  tribe  at  the 
ends  of  the  earth  imposed  its  heroes  on  Europe  and  in  the 
domain  of  the  imagination  accomplished  one  of  the  most 
singular  revolutions  known  to  the  history  of  literature." 

While  Renan  the  critic  is  evidenced  by  the  learning,  by  the 
scrupulous  reservations  and  by  the  delicate  insight  displayed 
in  the  perception  of  relationships,  Renan  the  ardent  person- 
ality is  still  more  prominently  exhibited  in  the  attractions 
and  repulsions  so  eloquently  set  forth.  Indeed,  the  author 
in  his  extraordinary  way — it  seems  like  mysticism  or  tran- 
scendentalism— identifies  himself  in  some  sort  with  the  Celtic 
race.  He  observes  and  describes  something  outside  of  him- 
self, yet  he  is  a  part  of  this  object  and  at  times  he  is  actually 
identical  with  it,  its  life  and  its  voice.  This  paradox  is  il- 
lustrated by  the  opening  of  the  essay,  already  quoted ;  it  is 
equally  manifest  in  the  closing  passage : 

In  view  of  the  progress,  day  by  day  more  overwhelming,  of  a 
civilization  which  belongs  to  no  country  and  can  receive  no  other 
name  than  modem  or  European,  it  would  be  puerile  to  hope  that 
the  Celtic  race  should  in  the  future  attain  any  isolated  expres- 
sion of  its  originality.  And  yet  we  are  far  from  believing  that 
this  race  has  spoken  its  last  word.  After  having  used  up  every 
kind  of  chivalry,  pious  and  worldly,  after  having  pursued  with 
Peredur  the  Holy  Grail  and  the  fair  sex,  dreamed  with  Saint 
Brandan  of  mystic  Atlantides,  who  knows  what  it  might  not  pro- 
duce in  the  intellectual  domain,  if  it  became  bold  enough  to  enter 
the  world  and  subject  its  rich  and  deep  nature  to  the  conditions 
of  modern  thought?  It  seems  to  me  that  such  a  combination 
would  bring  forth  highly  original  productions,  displaying  a  deli- 

168 


GROWING  REPUTATION 

cate  and  discrete  way  of  grasping  life,  a  singular  mingling  of 
force  and  weakness,  of  the  rude  and  the  sweet.  Few  races  have 
had  a  poetic  childhood  so  complete  as  the  Celtic  races:  they  have 
lacked  neither  m}i;hologj',  nor  lyric  or  epic  poetry,  nor  romantic 
imagination,  nor  religious  enthusiasm.  Why  should  reflection  be 
denied  them?  Germany,  which  began  with  science  and  criticism, 
has  ended  in  poetry;  why  should  not  the  Celts,  who  began  with 
poetry,  end  in  criticism?  The  distance  from  the  one  to  the  other 
is  not  so  great  as  is  commonly  supposed;  the  poetic  races  are 
the  philosophical  races,  for  at  bottom  philosophy  is  but  another 
kind  of  poetry.  "When  we  realize  that  it  was  less  than  a  century 
ago  that  Germany  found  her  genius  and  that  a  multitude  of  na- 
tional individualities  which  seemed  obliterated  have  in  our  days 
suddenly  sprung  up  more  animated  than  ever,  it  appears  an  act 
of  temerity  to  lay  down  a  law  for  the  interraittence  and  the  re- 
awakening of  races;  and  it  is  easy  to  believe  that  modem  civiliza- 
tion, which  seemed  destined  to  absorb  these  races,  will  in  truth 
be  nothing  but  the  fruit  of  their  cooperation. 

In  contrast  with  the  idealism  and  the  imaginative  visions 
of  Brittany  he  found  the  flat  materialism  of  Paris.  The 
Empire  and  its  adulators  gloried  in  the  International  Expo- 
sition of  1855,  with  its  display  of  textures,  fabrics  and  ma- 
chines. Renan's  spirit  of  antagonism  was  immediately 
aroused.  Such  things  have  their  value  as  subordinate  in- 
struments of  civilization,  but  why  all  this  clamor?  The 
great  ages  of  the  world — ^Phidian  Greece,  the  Renaissance — 
were  not  devoted  to  industrialism  and  comfort,  but  to  beauty 
and  ideas.  Such  impatient  reflections  find  voice  in  an  essay 
"On  the  Poetry  of  the  Exposition."*  Here  the  author  in- 
vites meditation  upon  the  fact  that,  while  the  Olympic 
Games  and  the  medieval  pilgrimages  and  festivals  were  oc- 
casions for  poetic  production,  the  Exposition  had  not  given 
birth  to  a  single  stanza  worth  remembering.  For  the  first 
time  in  historj',  he  remarks,  our  century  has  brought  together 
multitudes  without  any  ideal  aim,  simply  to  view  a  display 

*D6bats,  November  27,  1855,  Essais  de  morale  et  de  critique. 

169 


ERNEST  RENAN 

of  merchandise.  Industry  is,  indeed,  good  and  honorable, 
but  it  is  not  liberal.  **The  useful  does  not  ennoble;  that 
alone  ennobles  which  presupposes  in  man  some  intellectual 
and  moral  value. ' '  This  sentiment,  implanted  in  Renan  dur- 
ing childhood,  perhaps  even  bom  in  him,  is  also  the  senti- 
ment of  his  maturity  and  of  his  last  days,  * '  Industry, ' '  he 
proceeds,  and  how  often  has  he  repeated  the  thought!  "In- 
dustry renders  society  immense  services,  but  services  which, 
after  all,  may  be  paid  for  in  money.  To  each  his  recompense ; 
to  men  of  practical  utility  riches,  earthly  fortune,  all  the 
blessings  the  world  can  bestow ;  to  genius,  to  virtue,  glory, 
nobility,  poverty."  In  the  whole  industrial  movement  he 
sees  a  progress  away  from  lofty  aims  toward  mediocrity. 
The  young  enthusiast  of  The  Future  of  Science  flares  out 
again  in  this  explosion,  which  concludes  with  the  contemptu- 
ous words :  "It  does  not  appear  that  many  left  the  Exposi- 
tion Palace  better  than  they  entered  it;  indeed  our  friends, 
the  exhibitors,  would  not  exactly  have  got  what  they  wanted 
if  all  the  visitors  had  been  wise  enough  to  say  as  they  came 
away,  'What  a  lot  of  things  that  I  can  just  as  well  do  with- 
out!'" 

Art,  as  well  as  poetry,  furnished  matter  for  Renan 's 
thought.  At  the  studio  of  Ary  Scheffer,  so  elegant  and  aris- 
tocratic, he  not  only  saw  and  discussed  the  master's  paint- 
ings, but  he  entered  a  musical  atmosphere.  Here  distin- 
guished performers  rendered  classical  chamber  music,  Mme. 
Viardot,  the  opera  star,  often  sang,  and  a  young  pianist, 
Giinsberg,  called  by  some  a  genius,  but  a  premature  victim 
of  tuberculosis,  fascinated  the  privileged  visitors  by  his  poetic 
playing.^  Ary  Scheffer  was  a  painter  who  sought  the  ex- 
pression of  thought  through  form  and  color  and  found  in 
art  a  medium  for  the  promulgation  of  his  ideas.  It  was  this 
side  of  his  genius,  and  not  technical  skill,  that  Renan  pre- 

'See  Vitet's  article  in  the  Bevue  des  deux  Mondes,  October  1,  1858, 

170 


GROWING  REPUTATION 

sented  to  the  reading  public  in  "The  Temptation  of 
Christ. ' '  ®  This  is  a  picture  that  meets  the  test ;  it  makes 
the  beholder  better.  The  artist  has  presented  in  visible  form 
Renan's  favorite  contract;  on  the  one  hand,  the  figure  of 
Christ  expressing  an  absorption  without  effort  in  things  not 
of  this  world,  and  beside  it  and  below  it  the  tempter,  already- 
vanquished,  because  incapable  of  conceiving  any  motive  be- 
yond egotism,  cupidity  and  imposture.  A  whole  theory  of  re- 
ligious progress  is  based  on  the  tolerant  portrayal  of  Satan. 
Skeptical  regarding  abstractions,  our  age  has  faith  in  essen- 
tial truths.  When  language  fails,  art  takes  up  the  task,  for 
it  is  the  privilege  of  art  to  present  moral  ideas  without  dog- 
matism. "All  philosophy  is  necessarily  imperfect,  since  it 
seeks  to  shut  the  infinite  within  a  limited  framework.  .  .  . 
Art  alone  is  infinite.  .  .  .  Thus  art  appears  to  us  the  highest 
criticism ;  this  idea  we  grasp  when,  convinced  of  the  insuf- 
ficiency of  all  systems,  we  attain  wisdom,  seeing  that  each 
formula,  religious  or  philosophical,  is  vulnerable  in  its  ma- 
terial expression,  and  that  truth  is  nothing  but  the  voice  of 
nature,  disentangled  from  every  scholastic  symbol  and 
from  every  exclusive  dogma. ' '  Here  we  have  the  first  public 
expression  of  Renan's  philosophy  of  art.^ 

Prophetic  of  the  future  was  a  review  of  Ewald's  Geschichte 
des  Yolks  Israel,  which  appeared  in  the  Bevwe  des  deux 
Mondes,  November  15,  1855,  This  essay,  the  last  on  his 
specialty  to  be  published  in  this  magazine  for  ten  years, 
might  almost  serve  as  a  general  outline  of  Renan's  later 
volumes  on  this  subject,  for  it  indicates  the  conflict  between 
the  prophetic  and  administrative  forces  as  the  central  cur- 
rent of  Israel 's  history.  Here,  at  length,  we  find  Renan  mas- 
ter of  his  style,  the  republished  article  in  Studies  in  Religious 
History  differing  but  slightly  from  the  original  in  the  mag- 


•Dibats,  AprU  25,  1855. 

^  Compare  Matthew  Arnold 's  ' '  Poetry  is  a  criticism  of  life. ' ' 

171 


ERNEST  RENAN 

azine.*  We  find,  indeed,  no  further  recasting  of  his  period- 
ical essays  that  appeared  from  this  time  forward :  The  first 
printed  form  is  sufficiently  satisfactory  for  permanent  pres- 
ervation. Here  and  there  a  superfluous  phrase  will  be  dropped 
or  a  more  suitable  word  will  be  substituted,  but  the  altera- 
tions never  touch  whole  passages.  The  author  is  content  to 
follow  the  rule  laid  down  in  the  preface  of  Discours  et  corir- 
ferences  (1887,  p.  ii)  that  anything  published  has  a  date 
and  should  not  be  changed.^ 

II 

The  year  of  the  Exposition,  as  Renan  himself  tells  us,^" 
a  statement  confirmed  by  a  chronological  study  of  his  essays, 
marked  the  adoption  of  a  settled  manner  of  writing.  He 
had  always  given  much  attention  to  the  handling  of  style. 
The  false  rhetoric  of  Saint  Nicholas  had  looked  absurd  when 
viewed  from  the  sober  gardens  of  Issy,  though  doubtless  the 
schoolboy  practice  had  been  beneficial.  Under  the  roof  of 
Crouzet  his  efforts  at  expression  had  resulted  in  The  Future 
of  Science  and  its  attendant  contributions  to  periodicals. 
He  was  already  a  powerful  writer.  His  ideas  clamored  for 
expression,  while  his  enthusiasm,  learning  and  vigor  could 
not  fail  to  attract  notice.  What  he  chiefly  lacked  was  grace. 
Henriette,  whose  severe  taste  upheld  an  ideal  of  perfect 
fitness  in  diction,  found  his  writings  abrupt  and  negligent, 
often  excessive  and  hard,  even  disrespectful  in  their  treat- 

•  The  alterations  are  wholly  verbal  in  the  direction  of  exactness  or 
euphony:  e.  g.  les  procedes  qui  ont  prSsidS  becomes  les  lois  qui,  etc. 
The  corrections  in  the  Channing  essay  of  December  15,  1854,  are  of 
the  same  nature,  and  but  slightly  more  extensive. 

"The  principle  stated  in  the  preface  to  £tudes  is  less  rigorous  (pp. 
ii,  iii),  a  writer  in  reprinting  should  not  change  the  original  character 
of  his  work  and,  at  the  same  time,  he  should  not  send  it  forth  in  a 
form  that  he  is  able  to  make  less  imperfect.  The  corrections  noted 
largely  fulfill  these  two  conditions. 

*"  Preface  to  Avenir,  p.  vii. 

172 


GROWING  REPUTATION 

ment  of  language.  Her  criticism  convinced  him  that  he 
could  speak  his  whole  thought  without  departing  from  the 
simple  and  correct  style  of  the  best  authors.*^  Added  to 
the  influence  of  Henriette,  and  in  the  same  direction,  was 
the  revision  of  his  articles  by  M.  de  Sacy  in  the  office  of  the 
Debais, '  *  the  best  lesson  in  style  I  have  ever  had. ' '  ^'^  The  re- 
sult was  a  less  dogmatic  way  of  saying  things ;  the  fully  de- 
veloped phrase,  with  varied  transitions,  cadences  and  rhyth- 
mical units,  substituted  for  the  series  of  short,  sharp  asser- 
tions. The  change  coincided  with  a  change  in  his  habits  of 
thinking,  for  with  Renan,  throughout,  the  style  is  the 
thought.  "The  perfect  work,"  he  says,  reviewing  Sainte- 
Beuve's  Part-Royal  in  the  Debats  (August  28  and  30,  1860), 
is  that  in  which  there  is  no  literary  subconsciousness,  in 
which  no  one  can  for  a  moment  suspect  that  the  author 
writes  for  the  sake  of  writing;  in  other  words,  that  in  which 
there  is  not  a  trace  of  rhetoric."  "  "Port-Royal  alone,"  he 
adds,  "has  known  the  simple  manner  of  antiquity  at  its  best, 
the  style  that  leaves  to  each  his  own  shape,  and  does  not 
give  the  airs  of  genius  to  him  who  possesses  none,  but,  like  a 
well-fitting  garment,  is  the  exact  measure  of  the  thought, 
seeking  no  other  elegance  than  that  which  results  from  a  rig- 
orous propriety. "  ^*  It  is  the  sincerity  of  Renan 's  style 
exactly  fitting  his  thought,  which  gives  it  that  precision, 
transparency  and  grace  so  often  admired.  If  he  can  speak 
every  language,  as  Pellisier  says,^®  that  of  poetry  as  well  as 


"ScevT  Henriette,  pp.  32,  33. 

^Feuilles  detachees,  p.  134.  "It  was  these  two  organs  (Debats 
and  BevtLe  des  deus  Mondes)  that  taught  me  how  to  write,  that  is  to 
say,  how  to  limit  myself,  how  constantly  to  rub  the  angles  off  my 
ideas,  how  to  keep  a  watchful  eye  on  my  defects"  (Preface  to  Avenir). 
That  de  Sacy  was  the  real  master  is  proved  by  the  fact  that  the  Debats 
essays  are  never  much  altered  when  reprinted  in  book  form,  while  the 
early  Revue  essays  undergo  rather  extensive  changes. 

"  Nouvelles  Etudes  d'hisioire  religieuse,  p.  477. 

"76td.,  p.  478. 

"Le  Mouvement  litteraire  au  xix'  siede,  p.  321. 

173 


ERNEST  RENAN 

that  of  scholarship,  with  tones  of  phantasy,  irony,  tender- 
ness, sublimity,  it  is  because  all  these  tones  echoed  within 
his  soul  and  he  had  learned  with  unusual  perfection  to  ex- 
press, not  a  made-up  image,  but  himself. 

In  this  connection  a  note  by  Taine  in  1863  is  of  interest : 
"His  process  of  writing  consists  in  throwing  down  bits  of 
sentences,  paragraph  headings,  here  and  there ;  when  he  has 
arrived  at  the  sensation  of  the  whole,  he  strings  it  all  into 
one."" 

It  was  in  1855  that  Renan  finally  published  his  Histoire 
generale  et  systeme  compare  des  langues  semitiques}''  This 
was  a  development  of  his  prize  memoir  of  1847.  Intending 
to  do  for  the  Semitic  languages  what  Bopp  had  done  for  the 
Indo-European,  he  had  found  that  his  general  introduction 
on  the  history  of  these  tongues,  "their  role  in  time  and 
place,  their  geography,  the  order  and  character  of  the  writ- 
ten monuments  by  which  they  are  known, ' '  had  grown  to  a 
volume.  A  projected  second  volume  on  the  internal  history, 
the  comparative  grammar,  work  on  which  was  interrupted  by 
the  mission  to  Phcenicia  in  1860,  was  never  completed,  only 
two  studies  for  it  being  published  much  later  in  learned 
periodicals.^^    As  far  as  it  went,  however,  this  comparative 


"  Taine,  Sa  Vie  et  sa  correspondance,  vol.  ii,  p.  244. 

"  Ouvrage  couronn6  par  I'Institut,  Premiere  partie,  Histoire  g&ierale 
des  langues  sSmitiques.  Paris.  Imprime  par  autorization  de  I'Em- 
pereur  k  1 'Imprimerie  imp6riale,  1855  (in-8°)  Noms  des  libraires  chez 
lesquels  se  vend  1 'ouvrage,  Benjamin  Duprat  et  August©  Durand. 
Duprat  was  bookseller  of  the  Institut  and  Durand  was  the  publisher  of 
Averroes  and  Kenan's  Latin  thesis.  A  second  edition,  revised  and 
enlarged,  appeared  in  1858,  and  a  third  in  1863,  both  published  by 
L6vy.  In  May,  1855,  an  article  by  Eenan,  "Histoire  et  systSme  com- 
pares des  langues  semitiques, "  appeared  in  the  Journal  de  I'instrtiction 
publique.  I  have  not  seen  this  article,  but  I  presume  it  was  the 
preface  of  the  book. 

"A  chapter  on  Semitic  verbs  in  Memoires  de  la  Societe  de  Liru- 
guistique  de  Paris,  vol.  i,  and  "Les  noms  theophores  dans  les  langues 
s6mitiques, "  in  Revue  des  etudes  juives,  tome  v,  p.  161.  A  long  essay 
published  in  Vol.  74  of  the  Journal  Asiatique,  February-March  and 
April-May,  1859,  on  * '  Nouvelles  considerations  sur  le  caractdre  general 

174 


GROWING  REPUTATION 

view  of  Semitic  idioms  was  a  new  enterprise  and,  in  spite 
of  the  slight  attention  given  to  Assyria  and  Chaldea,  the 
book  was  a  capital  event  in  the  subject  and  made  Renan  the 
uncontested  master  of  Semitic  studies  in  France.  Jules 
Mohl,  reviewing  the  work  in  his  annual  report  to  the  Societe 
Asiatique  (June  20,  1855)  says:  "The  author  embraces  all 
the  Semitic  idioms,  with  the  exception  of  Babylonian,  on 
which  he  thinks  it  premature  to  theorize  in  the  present  state 
of  our  knowledge.  It  may  be  seen  how  such  a  plan  raises 
historical  and  linguistic  questions,  and  it  will  be  found  that 
M.  Renan  attacks  them  with  an  excellent  method,  wisely, 
courageously,  and  sometimes  hardily.  He  gathers  what  he 
finds  true  in  the  ideas  of  others,  he  adds  his  own,  and  thus 
presents  an  extremely  interesting  picture. ' '  ^^  Shortly  after- 
wards, Derenbourg,  in  a  review  of  the  book  in  the  Journal 
Asiatique  (August-September,  1855,  p.  296),  speaks  of  the 
solid  qualities  of  the  author,  his  exact  knowledge,  lucid  ex- 
position, moderate  and  circumspect  judgment,  and  happy 
and  clear  expression,  rare  in  philological  books. 

But  the  learned  journals  were  not  the  only  ones  to  notice 
the  work.  In  the  Debats  for  December  2  and  4,  1856, 
Edouard  Laboulaye  gives  it  a  long  notice,  in  which  he  praises 
the  author's  ardor,  though  he  would  like  a  little  more  mod- 
eration, holding  up  the  example  of  Burnouf  and  insinuating 
most  grateful  praise  by  saying  that,  if  any  one  could  console 
the  public  for  the  loss  of  such  a  scholar  and  fill  up  the  void, 
it  would  be  Renan.  The  work  is  also  the  subject  of  a  long 
review  by  Littre  in  the  Revue  des  deux  Mondes  (July  1, 
1857),  who  says:  "M.  Renan  is  a  skillful  writer.  He  ex- 
hibits not  only  the  lucidity  without  which  no  effect  can  be 
made  on  the  reader,  but  also  that  elegance  which  pleases, 
and,  as  Cicero  calls  them,  those  lights  of  style,  lumina  di- 

des  peuples  semitiques  et  en  particulier  sur  leur  tendance  au  monotheis- 
me, ' '  was,  however,  intended  to  be  the  first  chapter  of  the  second  volume. 
^Journal  Asiatique,  vol.  67,  p.  57. 

175 


ERNEST  RENAN 

cendi,  which  are  for  the  page  what  the  light  of  day  is  for  the 
landscape."  (P.  138.)  The  author,  we  are  told,  possesses 
erudition  and  the  art  to  make  it  effective,  and  in  a  gram- 
matical subject,  he  touches  on  delicate  problems  of  psychol- 
ogy and  origins. 

It  was,  indeed,  the  treatment  of  such  problems  that  aroused 
the  chief  objections  to  the  book.  In  the  midst  of  some  lin- 
guistic discussion,  we  come  suddenly  upon  a  passage  from 
The  Future  of  Science  or  from  one  of  the  periodical  essays. 
Much  of  this  matter  may  be  regarded  as  comparatively  un- 
important. On  the  other  hand,  there  were  some  theories 
that  displeased  many  philologists,  an  example  of  which  is 
the  hypothetical  early  connection  of  Semites  and  Aryans. 
But  the  theory  that  above  all  met  with  immediate,  and,  as 
it  befell,  permanent  disapproval,  was  that  of  the  monotheism 
of  the  Semites.  Such  a  theory  is,  in  Littre's  opinion,  not 
borne  out  by  the  evidence,  and  Mohl  and  others  in  the  Socieie 
Asiatique  at  once  presented  their  arguments  against  it. 
Curiously  enough,  Renan  clung  to  this  pet  idea  and  defended 
it  long  and  stoutly.^"  He  had  found  the  Semitic  race  char- 
acterized solely  by  negative  qualities,  having  neither  myth- 
ology, nor  epic,  nor  science,  nor  philosophy,  nor  fiction,  nor 
plastic  art,  nor  civic  life;  in  all,  absence  of  complexity,  of 
nuances,  an  exclusive  sentiment  of  unity.  And  yet  he  says 
in  his  preface  (1855)  that  he  does  not  defend  himself  against 
those  who  say  he  has  treated  too  exclusively  the  nomadic  and 
monotheistic  Semites,  if  they  will  admit  that  these  alone 

*  In  the  Journal  Asiatique  for  February-March  and  April-May, 
1859,  appeared  "Nouvelles  considerations  sur  le  caractdre  general  des 
peuples  sifimitiques  et  en  particulier  sur  leur  tendance  au  monotheisme, ' ' 
also  reprinted  in  pamphlet  form,  102  pp.,  3  fr.  50.  This  was  a  refuta- 
tion of  objections  against  his  book.  In  his  report  for  1859,  Mohl  speaks 
of  Kenan's  articles  as  follows:  "The  thesis  has  found  many  to  con- 
tradict it,  and  evidently  the  statement  of  a  tendency  of  an  entire  race 
cannot  be  strictly  proved,"  but  Kenan's  idea  conforms  to  the  leading 
facts  of  the  history  of  these  peoples  "so  far  as  such  an  assertion  can 
be  deduced,  defined  and  proved. ' '    Journal  Asiatique,  vol.  75,  p.  15. 

176 


GROWING  REPUTATION 

have  left  written  momiments  and  represeoit  the  Semitic  spirit. 
Here  is  obviously  one  of  those  qualifications  which  leave  little 
subsisting  of  the  original  doctrine.^^ 

In  linguistic  methods  Renan  follows  the  best  masters, 
Burnouf  and  Bopp,  and  he  owes  much  to  Gesenius  and 
Ewald.  He  still  speaks  also  of  a  height  of  spirituality- 
known  only  to  Germany  and  India.  But  he  is  fully  aware 
of  the  demoralizing  influences  at  work  in  German  scholarship. 
"The  great  evil  of  philological  science  in  Germany,"  he 
says,  "is  the  fever  for  innovation,  which  has  as  its  result 
that  a  branch  of  research,  brought  almost  to  its  perfection 
by  the  efforts  of  penetrating  minds,  finds  itself  the  next 
moment  apparently  demolished  by  presumptuous  beginners, 
who  aspire,  from  their  very  first  attempts,  to  pose  as  creators 
and  chiefs  of  schools. ' '  ^^  The  statement,  often  made,  that 
Renan  began  to  find  fault  with  Germany  only  after  1870  is, 
we  repeat,  far  from  the  truth. 

Ill 

His  scholarly  book  opened  to  Renan  the  doors  of  the 
Academy  of  Inscriptions  and  Belles-Lettres.  On  May  26, 
Augustin  Thierry  died,  and  Renan  was  elected  his  successor 
on  December  5.^^  Besides  the  honor  of  a  seat  in  the  In- 
stitut,  the  goal  of  every  French  scholar's  ambition,  he  re- 
ceived the  annual  gratuity  of  1500  francs  attached  to  raem- 

*^  In  July,  1859,  Benan  read  his  thesis  on  this  subject  at  the  Academie 
des  Inscriptions,  on  which  occasion  there  were  strong  objections,  fol- 
lowed by  much  discussion.    See  Comptes  rendus  for  the  year. 

•"P.  422,  edition  of  1855.  The  same  reproach  is  found  in  a  letter 
to  the  Bevve  germaniqite,  December  15,  1857,  reprinted  in  Questions 
contemporaines.    See  p.  259  in  particular. 

"Some  of  Eenan's  detractors  have  taken  pleasure  in  making  it 
appear  that  there  was  decided  opposition  in  the  Academy  to  his  elec- 
tion, but  of  such  there  is  no  evidence.  To  the  seat  left  vacant  by 
Thierry  was  added  that  of  Fourtoul,  who  died  July  7.  Thierry  was 
replaced  by  Renan  December  5,  and  Fourtoul  by  Eenier  December  12, 
the  delay  being  no  longer  than  usual. 

177 


ERNEST  RENAN 

bership,  and  within  a  year,  being  added  provisionally  in 
1857  (April  17)  and  permanently  in  1858  (November  19)  to 
the  committee  on  the  Histoire  littercdre  de  la  France,  one 
of  the  three  standing  committees  of  the  Academy,  he  re- 
ceived further  compensation  at  the  rate  of  2400  francs  a  year, 
a  substantial  addition  to  his  limited  resources,  now  still  fur- 
ther depleted  by  his  brother 's  failure  in  business.  The  other 
members  of  tlie  committee  were  Paulin  Paris,  Le  Clerc  and 
Littre,  all  much  older  and  more  widely  known  men  than  him- 
self, and  assuredly  good  scholarly  company  for  the  new  mem- 
ber. Few  of  his  associates  in  the  Academy  were  more  active 
than  Renan.  From  the  very  first,  he  was  assigned  to  com- 
mittees for  proposing  prize  subjects  and  for  reading  the 
memoirs  presented  in  competition.  He  was  also  assiduous  in 
his  attendance  at  the  weekly  meetings,  a  good  academician,  as 
he  afterwards  asserted.^* 

Meanwhile  he  had  married,  though  after  a  severe  domestic 
strain.  From  the  habitude  of  years,  his  sister  had  come  to 
feel  a  sort  of  proprietary  right  to  his  undivided  affection. 
She  had  once  proposed  that  he  should  marry,  but  apparently 
without  any  serious  realization  of  what  the  step  would  mean 
to  herself.  When  he  announced  that  he  had  chosen  Cornelie, 
daughter  of  Henri  and  niece  of  Ary  Scheffer,  for  his  bride, 
there  was  a  trying  scene.  The  story  must  be  told  in  his  own 
words: 

We  passed  through  every  storm  of  which  love  is  capable.  When 
she  told  me  that,  in  proposing  my  marriage,  she  had  only  wished 
to  test  me,  and  declared  that  the  moment  of  my  union  with 
another  would  be  that  of  her  departure,  I  felt  death  in  my  heart. 
.  .  .  When  she  met  Miss  Cornelie  Scheffer,  the  two  felt  the  mutual 
attraction  that  later  became  so  sweet  for  both.  The  noble  and 
lofty  attitude  of  M.  Ary  Scheffer  also  captivated  and  overwhelmed 
her.  .  .  .  She  wanted  the  union;  but  at  the  decisive  moment,  the 

**The  above  information  may  be  found  in  the  Comptes  rend/us  apd 
the  M&movres  of  the  Academic  for  1857. 

i7a 


GROWING  REPUTATION 

woman  in  her  came  again  to  the  fore;  she  no  Icmger  had  the 
strength  of  will  to  master  herself. 

Finally  the  day  arrived  when  I  felt  obliged  to  issue  from  this 
cruel  agony.  Forced  to  choose  between  two  affections,  I  sacri- 
ficed everything  to  the  older  one,  to  the  one  which  looked  most 
like  a  duty.  I  told  Miss  Scheffer  that  I  would  see  her  no  more, 
unless  my  sister's  heart  ceased  to  bleed.  It  was  evening;  I  came 
back  to  tell  my  sister  what  I  had  done.  A  quick  revulsion  took 
place  in  her  heart;  to  have  prevented  a  union  that  I  wished,  and 
that  she  highly  appreciated,  filled  her  with  cruel  remorse.  Early 
the  next  morning,  she  hurried  to  the  Scheffers';  she  spent  long 
hours  with  my  fiancee;  they  wept  together;  they  parted  happy, 
and  friends.  After,  as  before  my  marriage,  we  had  everything 
in  common.  It  was  her  economy  that  made  our  new  household 
establishment  possible.  Without  her  I  could  not  have  faced  my 
new  duties.  My  confidence  in  her  goodness  was,  indeed,  so  g^eat 
that  the  naivete  of  my  conduct  did  not  strike  me  until  much  later. 

Certain  alternations  lasted  a  long  time;  often  the  cruel  and 
fascinating  demon  of  affectionate  inquietude,  of  jealousy,  of  sudden 
revolt,  or  sudden  repentance,  that  dwells  in  women's  hearts,  re- 
vived to  torture  her.  Often  in  her  grieved  talk  she  broached  the 
idea  of  abandoning  a  home  in  which,  during  her  periods  of  bit- 
terness, she  pretended  she  had  become  useless.  But  these  were 
only  the  remnants  of  bad  dreams,  which  were  dissipated  little  by 
little.  The  delicate  tact,  the  exquisite  heart  of  the  one  I  had  given 
her  for  a  sister  won  a  complete  triumph.  In  the  midst  of  tran- 
sient reproaches,  the  charming  intervention  of  Comelie,  her  gayety, 
full  of  spontaneity  and  grace,  changed  our  tears  into  smiles;  all 
three  would  end  by  kissing  one  another,  .  .  ,  The  birth  of  my 
little  Ary  obliterated  the  last  trace  of  her  tears." 

The  wedding,  a  quiet  ceremony,  Berthelot,  Jules  Simon 
and  a  few  others  being  apparently  the  only  friends  outside 
the  family  to  be  invited,^®  took  place  on  the  morning  of 
September  11,  1856,  at  Saint- Germain-des-Pres  and  after- 
wards, since  the  Scheffers  were  Protestants,  at  the  Temple 
de  rOratoire.    It  was  Renan's  opinion  that  the  Church  per- 

*  S(zur  Eenriette,  pp.  40-48. 

^  Lettres  Berthelot,  pp.   141,  142;   Jules  Simon,  Quatre  Portraits, 


193. 


179 


ERNEST  RENAN 

formed  a  useful  social  function  in  providing  appropriate 
ceremonies  for  baptism,  marriage  and  burial.  Brother,  wife 
and  sister  seem  to  have  taken  an  apartment  in  the  rue  des 
Saints-Peres,  from  which  an  invitation  of  this  period  is  sent 
to  Berthelot  to  dine  with  Ary  Scheffer.^^  In  1857  Renan 
moved  to  27  rue  Casimir-Perier,  where  he  remained  two  or 
three  years.  This  was  near  the  Invalides,  the  farthest  from 
the  Latin  Quarter  of  any  of  his  Paris  homes,  for  though 
Renan  migrated  rather  frequently,  he  usually  sought  the 
neighborhood  of  the  University.^^ 


IV 

It  was  doubtless  just  about  the  time  of  his  marriage  that 
he  received  the  visit  from  Michel  Levy  of  which  he  tells  in 
his  Recollections  (pp.  350-352) : 

I  had  never  imagined  that  the  product  of  my  thinking  could 
have  a  money  value.  I  had  always  wanted  to  write;  but  I  did 
not  believe  that  writing  would  bring  in  a  cent.     What  was  my 

^  Lettres  Berthelot,  p,  142. 

**  Grant  Duff  found  him  in  November,  1859,  in  rue  Casimir-Perier; 
in  1862  in  rue  de  Madame,  close  by  the  Luxembourg;  in  1863  in  29 
rue  Vanneau,  not  far  from  rue  Casimir-Perier;  in  1881  in  rue  Tournon, 
right  in  front  of  the  Luxembourg  palace.  After  1883,  he  lived  in  the 
College  de  France.  Eenan  must  have  moved  to  rue  Madame  as  early 
as  1860,  for  Berthelot  speaks  of  meeting  Baby  in  the  Luxembourg 
Gardens,  p.  179. 

The  Annuaire  of  The  Institut  de  France  gives  Kenan's  residences  as 
follows : 

1857,  rue  des  Saints-Pferes,  no.  3. 

1858-1860,  rue  Casimir-Perier,  no.  27. 

1860-1863,  rue  de  Madame,  no.  55. 

1864-1876,  rue  Vanneau,  no.  29. 

1877-1879,  rue  Saint-Guillaume,  no.  16. 

1880-1883,  rue  de  Tournon,  no.  4. 

1884  et  seq.,  au  College  de  France. 
Only  once  did  he  emigrate  to  the  right  bank  of  the  Seine,  and  this 
was  in  January,  1871,  to  avoid  the  German  shells.  See  Goncourt 
Jowmal,  p.  186,  under  date  of  January  10,  1871.  Brandes  is  in  error 
when  he  says  he  visited  Renan  in  1870  in  rue  de  Vannes;  he  means 
rue  Vanneau,  where  Benan  lived,  three  flights  up. 

180 


GROWING  REPUTATION 

astonishment  when  I  saw  come  into  my  garret  a  man  with  an  in- 
telligent and  agreeable  countenance,  who  compUmented  me  on 
some  of  my  articles  and  offered  to  collect  them  in  book  form!  A 
stamped  paper  he  had  brought  stipulated  conditions  that  seemed 
to  me  astonishingly  generous;  so  that,  when  he  asked  if  I  was 
willing  to  have  all  my  future  writings  included  in  the  same  con- 
tract, I  consented.  I  thought  for  a  minute  of  making  some  ob- 
servations; but  the  sight  of  the  stamp  forbade;  I  was  checked 
by  the  idea  that  such  a  fine  sheet  of  paper  would  be  lost.  It 
was  well  that  I  desisted.  M.  Michel  Levy  must  have  been  created 
by  a  special  decree  of  Providence  to  be  my  publisher.  A  self- 
respecting  literary  man  ought  to  write  only  for  a  single  newspaper 
and  a  single  review,  and  he  ought  to  have  only  one  publisher. 
M.  Michel  Levy  and  I  had  only  the  best  of  relations  with  one  an- 
other. Later,  he  called  my  attention  to  the  fact  that  the  contract 
he  had  offered  me  was  not  sufficiently  to  my  advantage  and  he 
substituted  another  still  more  liberal.  I  have  been  told  that,  after 
all,  it  was  not  a  poor  piece  of  business  for  him.  I  am  delighted. 
On  the  whole,  I  can  say  that,  if  I  represented  any  capital  in  the 
line  of  literary  production,  justice  required  that  he  should  have 
his  large  share  in  it;  he,  indeed,  discovered  it,  for  I  should  never 
have  suspected  it  myself. 

Allowing  for  humorous  exaggeration,  we  may  accept  the 
story  as  substantially  accurate.  The  young  scholar  had, 
indeed,  been  paid  for  his  articles,  but  his  books  had  so  far 
brought  him  nothing.  He  had  written  for  several  periodi- 
cals, yet  after  his  introduction  to  the  Debats  and  the  Bevue 
des  deux  Mondes,  he  almost  wholly  confined  his  untechnical 
contributions  to  these  two;  and  though  Durand  had  pub- 
lished Averro'es  and  was  the  distributor  of  the  Histoire 
generale  and  of  various  pamphlets.  Levy  was  henceforth  to 
take  over  both  of  these  books,  and  to  publish  everything  new 
that  came  from  Renan's  pen.^^  The  absolute  statement 
concerning  the  self-respecting  author 's  relation  to  his  medium 
and  to  his  publisher  is  merely  an  instance  of  an  habitual 

"Flaubert  found  L6vy  rapacious,  Mevue  d'histoire  littSraire,  1911, 
p.  364,  et  seq.,  but  his  case  seems  to  have  been  exceptional. 

181 


ERNEST  RENAN 

generalization  of  personal  experience  into  moral  dogma, 
which  is  one  of  Renan's  salient  characteristics. 

The  first  volume  that  resulted  from  this  collaboration  was 
Studies  in  Religi(ms  History  (March,  1857),^°  a  collection  of 
book  reviews  from  La  Liberie  de  Penser,  the  Revue  des  deux 
Mondes,  and  the  Journal  des  Dehats.  Notwithstanding 
their  diversity  of  origin,  these  essays  have  a  unity  of  sub- 
ject found  in  no  other  of  Renan's  collections.  They  con- 
stitute, if  we  add  the  rejected  Buddha  and  the  still  unwrit- 
ten Saint  Francis,  a  rounded  program  of  his  religious  stud- 
ies; beginning  with  Greek  mythology;  embracing  the  three 
great  Semitic  systems,  Israel,  Jesus,  Mohammed ;  then  glanc- 
ing at  medieval  Catholicism  with  the  Saints  and  the  Imitation 
of  Christ;  at  Protestantism  with  Calvin ;  and  concluding  with 
the  present,  the  Unitarianism  of  Channing,  the  skepticism  of 
the  neo-Hegelians,  and  the  poetic  insight  displayed  in  Ary 
Scheffer's  canvas.  Israel  and  Jesus,  however,  were  the 
author's  chosen  topics.  There  is  a  prefatory  promise  of  a 
history  of  Semitic  religions  and  of  the  origins  of  Christianity 
after  the  completion  of  the  half-published  work  on  Semitic 
languages.     (P.  xxvi.) 

The  preface  must  be  viewed  as  one  of  the  most  important 
of  the  essays,  a  sort  of  review  by  the  author  of  his  own 
work.  Herein,  often  in  the  very  phraseology  of  The  Future 
of  Science,  he  states  his  general  attitude  toward  religion. 
It  is  the  highest  manifestation  of  the  human  spirit,  an 
eternal  and  sacred  form  of  poetry  that  elevates  man  above 
vulgar  life,  and  whose  one  deadly  foe  is  materialism.  But 
a  distinction  must  be  drawn  between  religion  and  its  forms. 
Theological  dogmatism,  exacting  belief,  is  opposed  to  the 
scientific  spirit,  which  applies  to  sacred  and  profane  litera- 
ture, without  distinction,  the  critical  principles  followed  in 
history  and  philology,  disinterested  principles  which  substi- 

••  The  volume  was  popular.     Four  editions  appeared  within  a  year. 

182 


GROWING  REPUTATION 

tute  the  nuance  for  the  system,  the  delicate  qualification 
for  the  absolute  assertion.  This  scientific  spirit  uses  the 
inductive  method,  and  rejects  miracles,  finding  for  every 
fact  a  rational  explanation.  By  no  means  polemical,  its  re- 
sults are  given  without  the  least  regard  to  practical  conse- 
quences, and,  while  ever  ready  to  discuss  problems  in  good 
faith,  it  is  unwilling,  no  matter  what  the  provocation,  to  an- 
swer passionate  adversari^.^^ 

The  essays  that  follow  are  an  application  of  the  critical 
procedure  indicated  in  the  preface.  Inspiration  is  drawn 
from  the  German  scholarship  of  "the  heroic  age";^^  its  lib- 
eral reason  so  strongly  contrasted  with  both  theological  and 
rationalistic  narrowness.  "With  no  vain  pretension  of  infalli- 
bility, Renan  seeks  the  real  with  every  instrument  provided 
by  erudition  and  sympathetic  intuition,  such,  being  supplied 
to  a  certain  extent,  it  is  true,  but  by  no  means  completely, 
in  the  books  under  review.  The  poetic  is  what  he  seeks  in 
past  and  present,  aspiration  toward  the  infinite,  the  identity 
and  continuity  of  religious  feeling  in  every  form  of  adora- 
tion, from  the  Greek  mysteries  to  the  Catholic  mass,  from 
the  worship  of  fabled  divinities  of  earth  and  sky  and  sea  to 
the  worship  of  the  Saints.  Discarding  an  absolute  standard 
of  judgment,  he  portrays  that  which  is  human,  and  being 
human,  is  also  divine.    Though  no  specialist  in  Greek  myth- 

"  Though  condemning  all  polemic,  as  having  been  used  up  by  Vol- 
taire, Renan  saw  the  need  of  cooperation.  In  a  review  of  Jules 
Simon's  Le  Devoir  {Chronique  of  the  Eevue  des  deux  Mondes,  March 
1,  1854),  he  says  (p.  1066),  "Now  above  all,  in  the  midst  of  the  at- 
tacks directed  against  the  modern  spirit,  we  must  unite;  and  union 
can  be  attained  only  through  the  great  impregnable  truths,  by  mutual 
sacrifice  of  paradoxes  and  individual  opinions.  The  aristocracy  needed 
by  modern  times,  that  of  noble  souls,  recruited  almost  equally  from 
every  order  of  society,  will  be  formed  only  when  all  who  have  a  little 
sense  and  probity  join  hands,  and,  while  retaining  complete  liberty  re- 
garding the  particular  forms  of  their  belief,  unite  on  the  common 
ground  of  enlightened  reason  and  duty."  Renan,  as  well  as  a  whole 
group  of  young  university  men,  felt  themselves  to  be  crusaders  in  the 
cause  of  enlightened  reason. 

'*Cir.  1780-1830.    Strauss  and  Ewald  must  of  course  be  added. 

183 


ERNEST  RENAN 

ology,  he  makes  it  intelligible  as  a  "secret  accord  of  nature 
and  the  soul."  With  the  Aryan  mood  he  contrasts  the 
Semitic,  sprung  from  the  desert  and  insistent  upon  the  unity 
of  God.  The  question  whether  Mahomet  was  enthusiast  or 
impostor,  posed  and  argued  by  a  Gibbon,  has  no  meaning  to 
Renan,  and  could  not  be  raised  by  a  reader  of  his  essay.  This 
enemy  of  theology  is,  furthermore,  charmed  and  fascinated 
by  the  Christian  Saints  and  he  draws  a  most  tender  portrait 
of  the  author  of  the  Imitation  of  Christ.  On  the  other  hand, 
he  is  repelled  by  the  hardness  and  violence  of  Calvin.  Prot- 
estantism appears  to  him  both  less  lovely  and  less  reason- 
able than  Catholicism.  Channing  he  appreciates  for  his 
honest,  simple  goodness,  but  he  disparages  him  for  his  lack 
of  critical  power,  fineness  of  intellect  and  high  culture,  for 
**a  world  without  science  and  genius  is  as  incomplete  as  a 
world  without  virtue."  The  essay  on  Scheffer's  painting  is 
thus  really  a  fitting  climax  to  this  series,  for  it  again  empha- 
sized the  axiom  that  religion  is  not  merely  philosophy,  but 
also,  and  above  all,  art. 

That  Renan  was  following  Thierry's  advice  and  giving 
out  small  doses  of  The  Future  of  Science  in  periodical  es- 
says will  be  obvious  to  any  attentive  reader.  Throughout 
the  book  the  doctrines  and  even  the  words  of  the  earlier  work 
meet  us  on  every  page :  Primitive  spontaneity,  age  of  analy- 
sis, eclecticism,  man  not  to  be  happy  but  noble,  France  or- 
thodox because  indifferent,  and  a  hundred  more.  As  an 
illustration  of  Renan 's  economy — it  might  almost  be  called 
parsimony — ^may  be  noted  a  passage  from  The  Future  of 
Science  which  was  inserted  in  the  magazine  text  of  the 
article  on  the  religions  of  antiquity,  but  deleted  from  the 
volume  because  already  used  in  another  of  the  essays.^^ 
Either  Renan  knew  such  passages  by  heart,  or,  as  seems  more 

•*  The  passage  in  question  is  to  be  found  on  p.  413 ;  La  vie  antique 
si  sereine,  etc.  It  was  omitted  from  p.  69,  after  Eereux  ceux  qui 
fleurent! 

184 


GROWING  REPUTATION 

probable,  he  turned  to  his  old  manuscript  and  copied  them 
verbatim, 

A  single  quotation  will  be  added  because  it  illustrates  the 
personal  character  usual  in  Renan's  abstract  views:  "To 
give  the  history  of  a  religion,  it  is  essential  that  one  should 
have  believed,  but  that  one  believes  no  longer:  we  fully 
understand  only  the  worship  that  has  aroused  our  first  as- 
pirations toward  the  ideal.  Who  can  be  just  to  Catholicism 
if  he  has  not  been  cradled  in  its  admirable  legend,  if  in  the 
tones  of  its  hymns,  in  the  vaults  of  its  temples,  in  the  sym- 
bols of  its  worship,  he  does  not  find  the  first  sensations  of 
his  religious  life?"  (P.  7.) 


M.  Ary  Scheffer  once  advised  his  niece,  and  the  advice 
seems  really  to  have  been  superfluous,  to  marry  the  most  in- 
telligent man  he  knew.  By  1857  Renan  was  not  only  intelli- 
gent, but  ripe.  The  dogmatic  tone  of  the  clever  neophyte  is 
now  replaced  by  the  authoritative  voice  of  the  master.  He 
no  longer  shouts  his  doctrines,  but  insinuates  them  with  the 
urbanity  of  accomplished  maturity.  This  change  of  manner, 
the  beginnings  of  which  have  already  been  noticed,  reached 
an  even  completeness  in  the  review  of  the  posthumous  works 
of  Lamennais.^*  There  are  still,  it  is  true,  phrases  verbally 
transcribed  from  The  Future  of  Science,  but  they  are  trans- 
figured by  the  context.  The  ideas  are  unchanged,  only  they 
are  allowed  to  operate  by  their  own  motive  force,  instead 
of  being  driven  in  with  a  hammer.^* 

**Bevue  des  deux  Mondes,  August  15,  1857. 

••  One  example  must  suffice.  In  his  review  of  Gamier 's  La  Morale 
sooiale,  May  7,  1851  (MSlanges  religieux  et  historiques,  p.  70),  Benan 
says:  "In  political  and  moral  science,  reasoning  and  proof  are  less 
necessary  than  delicate  perception  of  the  nuances  of  human  nature." 
Here  (Essais  de  morale  et  de  critique,  p.  189)  he  says:  "In  the 
moral  and  political  sciences,  in  which  the  principles,  through  their  in- 
sufficient and  ever  partial  expression,  rest  half  on  the  true  and  half 

185 


ERNEST  RENAM 

The  character  of  the  essay,  moreover,  displays  the  unmis- 
takable influence  of  Sainte-Beuve,  with  whom  Renan  was 
now  on  terms  of  friendship.^^  A  sympathetic  study  of  an 
eminent  personality,  its  purpose  is  to  throw  light  "on  the 
present  state  of  men's  souls  and  on  the  laws  that  preside 
over  certain  developments  of  thought."  In  the  spirit  of 
his  friend,  Renan  maintains  that  **it  cannot  be  the  duty  of 
criticism  to  regret  that  men  have  not  been  other  than  they 
were,  but  simply  to  explain  what  they  actually  were."  The 
Breton  origin  and  the  ecclesiastical  education  of  Lamennais 
— ^here  also  we  observe  Sainte-Beuve 's  method — are  given 
full  weight  in  the  explanation  of  this  poet  of  the  '  *  severe  and 
ever  irritable  Muse. ' '  Out  of  the  discussion,  furthermore,  a 
unified  personality  emerges,  complete  and  invariable  in  spite 
of  change  of  faith,  a  character  with  an  * '  identical  system  of 
eloquent  hate  applied  to  the  most  diverse  objects."  An- 
other hardly  less  marked  borrowing  from  the  master  critic 
is  the  habit  of  allowing  praiseworthy  qualities  to  eminent  per- 
sons, while  the  special  matter  in  hand  is  the  indication  of 
their  faults.^'^  Here  plainly  the  unruffled  Sainte-Beuve  is 
superposed  upon  the  eager  Renan;  not,  however,  with  any 
diminution  of  the  younger  man 's  originality.  The  poetic  Bre- 
ton, as  is  his  custom,  imputes  much  of  himself  to  the  object 
of  his  study;  and,  indeed,  in  his  early  hates  and  violences, 


on  the  false,  the  results  of  reasoning  are  legitimate  only  when  con- 
trolled at  each  step  by  experience  and  good  sense.  .  .  .  Logic  does  not 
grasp  the  nuances;  yet  it  is  wholly  in  the  nuance  that  truths  of  the 
moral  order  reside."  A  very  striking  case  in  point  is  furnished  by  a 
comparison  of  what  he  says  in  this  essay  about  Catholic  intolerance 
and  what  he  said  in  La  Liberie  de  Penser.  See  Questions  contempo- 
raines,  the  essay  on  "Clerical  Liberalism,"  softened,  as  we  have  seen, 
when  reprinted,  and  Essais  de  morale  et  de  critique,  pp.  159-162. 

*•  In  a  letter  of  1852,  Sainte-Beuve  addresses  Eenan  as  Monsieur. 
On  September  27,  1857,  he  writes  Cher  Monsieur,  and  offers  to  support 
his  candidacy  for  QuatremSre's  chair.  Nouvelle  Correspondance  de 
Sainte-Beuve,  p.  146. 

"  Compare  Avenir,  p.  212,  p.  499,  n.  51,  and  p.  572,  n.  109,  with 
**M.  de  Maistre,  etc.,"  Essais,  p.  154. 

186 


GROWING  REPUTATION 

though  never  a  partisan,  he  did  approach  Lamennais  on  this 
hard  side.  He  has  also  the  same  tenderness,  the  same  love 
of  nature,  the  same  antipathy  to  vulgarity.  This  special 
sympathy  with  his  subject  is  especially  manifested  in  an 
account  of  education  at  the  Seminary,  a  passage  almost  in 
the  very  vFords  of  one  on  the  same  topic  in  Eecollections  of 
Childhood  and  Youth.  The  essay  was  no  perfunctory  or 
mercenary  exercise.  For  years  Lamennais  haunted  Renan's 
spirit.  No  contemporary  is  so  frequently  mentioned  in  the 
Origins  of  Christianity;  and  then  he  disappears  suddenly 
and  completely.  The  History  of  the  People  of  Israel  knows 
him  no  longer. 

The  search  for  the  dominant  trait  is  also  shovra  in  an 
article  on  Thierry  in  the  Dehats  (January  5,  1857),  all  the 
qualities  of  the  historian's  genius  being  grouped  around 
his  special  gift,  ' '  direct  intuition  of  the  sentiments  and  pas- 
sions of  the  past."  This  gift,  which  enabled  Thierry  to 
discover  the  spirit  under  the  dead  letter  of  charters  and 
chronicles,  learning  from  his  own  epoch  how  to  understand 
former  ages  and  to  make  the  past  live  again,  this  gift  is 
one  that  Renan  not  only  admires,  but  stands  ready  to  imi- 
tate; and,  in  defending  the  methods  of  his  friend,  he  in 
fact  presents  his  own  fundamental  ideas  as  to  how  history 
should  be  written.  An  art,  as  well  as  a  science,  history  re- 
quires perfection  of  form  and  grace  of  style.  The  Benedic- 
tines furnish  one  type  of  research,  necessary,  indeed,  for  the 
accumulation  of  facts,  but  incomplete  and  therefore  mis- 
leading. Even  a  knowledge  of  texts  has  been  the  gainer  by 
a  large  and  free  method.  In  fact,  the  details  of  history  are 
mostly  false,  as  Renan  demonstrated  to  his  own  satisfaction 
by  a  futile  attempt  to  reconstruct  for  himself  a  complete 
idea  of  the  happenings  of  '48.  "Every  generalization,"  he 
continues,  "is  vulnerable,  and  the  only  way  to  escape  criti- 
cism in  writing  history  is  to  limit  oneself  to  insignificant 
particulars.     But  no.     This  way  is  the  most  false  of  all, 

187 


ERNEST  RENAN 

and  the  pretended  exactitude  of  which  it  is  so  proud  is  at 
bottom  only  falsehood.  Imagination,  proscribed  with  such 
anathemas  by  exclusively  learned  historians,  has  often  a 
better  chance  of  finding  the  truth  than  a  servile  fidelity, 
content  to  reproduce  the  original  narratives  of  the  chroni- 
clers. ...  It  is  only  with  love  that  one  creates,  and,  if  I 
may  venture  to  say  it,  with  passion ;  the  foundations  of  an 
historical  study  can  be  laid  only  by  being  decisive  on  many 
points  upon  which  science  is  far  from  having  spoken  its 
last  word."  Thierry  had,  what  Renan  himself  was  later 
to  develop,  "the  double  stamp  of  genius,  hardihood  in  crea- 
tion and  finish  in  detail. ' '  The  eminent  historian  who  fur- 
nishes the  text  for  this  discourse  on  the  nature*  of  history 
was  thus  as  much  a  model  for  Renan 's  historical  composition 
as  Burnouf  had  been  for  his  scholarship;  only  Renan,  not 
fully  content  with  the  personal  kind  of  history  of  which 
Thierry  was  master,  would  assimilate  to  it  a  rival  type,  ex- 
emplified in  Guizot,  the  philosophical.  Thus  the  history 
lesson  taught  by  his  friend  needed  a  complement,  but  none 
had  to  be  added,  or  could  be  added  to  the  moral  lesson  of 
that  ''almost  miraculous  life,"  that  heroic  struggle  of  a 
strong  soul  against  blindness,  paralysis  and  agony,  without 
a  moment  of  lassitude,  of  ennui,  of  discouragement.  Renan 
pays  feeling  tribute  to  ''that  simplicity,  that  uprightness, 
that  goodness,  which  belong  only  to  the  man  of  genius,  and 
which  so  often  made  you  feel,  as  you  came  from  a  chat  with 
him,  that  even  above  his  lofty  intelligence  you  would  be 
inclined  to  place  his  heart." 

Two  further  studies  of  contemporaries  in  the  manner  of 
Sainte-Beuve  appeared  in  the  Revue  des  deux  Mondes  in 
1858,  that  on  Cousin  (reviewing  Fragments  et  souvenirs, 
April  1)  and  that  on  de  Sacy  (reviewing  Varietes  litteraires 
et  historiqucs,  August  1 ) .  Renan  has  written  nothing  more 
delightful  than  this  little  group  of  four  essays,  which  stand 
alone  as  the  only  pieces  of  the  kind  from  his  pen.    .To  pass 

188 


GROWING  REPUTATION 

judgment  on  the  great  Cousin  was  considered  a  bold  enter- 
prise. Worshiping  disciples  were  scandalized,  and  the  mas- 
ter himself,  who  did  not  relish  criticism  of  any  kind,  was 
in  bad  humor  over  the  polite  but  authoritative  estimate  of 
one  whom  he  had  seen  emerge  from  insignificant  beginnings 
in  1848.  "His  originality  lies  in  his  personal  character  much 
more  than  in  his  work":  "seeking  to  philosophize  for  a 
large  number,  he  was  obliged  to  try,  not  so  much  to  refine 
his  formulas,  as  to  make  them  clear  and  acceptable":  "M. 
Cousin  belongs  rather  to  literature  than  to  science":  "From 
the  moment  we  admit  that  the  design  is  noble  and  elevated, 
the  faults  which  this  design  carries  with  it  are  absolved  at 
once,  and  there  is  no  one  who  cannot  say  what  the  Church 
says  of  the  original  sin,  Felix  culpa":  such  phrases,  setting 
forth  the  notion  that  eminent  faculties  limit  one  another, 
and  that  faults  are  an  inevitable  condition  of  every  sort  of 
merit,  implied  that  the  master  had  faults,  an  implication  by 
no  means  palatable  to  the  inner  circle,  particularly  when 
coming  from  an  outsider  like  Renan.  That  Cousin,  not  con- 
tent to  be  a  philosopher,  wished  also  to  be  writer,  politician 
and  founder  and  chief  of  a  school,  and  that  the  popular 
side  in  him  damaged  the  scientific,  are,  however,  judgments 
now  universally  recognized  as  correct.  Others  might  have 
equally  well  distinguished  faults  and  merits,  but  Sainte- 
Beuve  alone  could  have  done  this  with  such  charm,  and 
there  are  certain  original  traits  that  we  should  fail  to  find 
even  in  Sainte-Beuve.  The  Future  of  Science  is  still  here — 
body  and  soul  are  as  inseparable  as  the  instrument  and  the 
music,  the  print  on  the  page  and  the  idea;  the  true  philos- 
ophy of  our  age  is  history ;  philosophy  is  one  side  of  life,  a 
way  of  taking  things,  not  an  exclusive  study;  you  can  say 
all  the  ill  you  choose  of  the  world,  but  you  cannot  prevent 
its  being  the  strangest  and  most  attractive  of  spectacles — yet 
these  are  no  longer  abstract  formulas,  but  side  remarks  that 
spring  from  the  subject  under  consideration,  and  furnish 

189 


ERNEST  RENAN 

a  graceful,  fitting  and  unobtrusive  background  to  the  por- 
trait. 

In  the  opening  of  the  Cousin  essay  an  unfavorable  con- 
trast is  drawn  between  the  generation  that  came  to  maturity 
in  1848  and  its  predecessor  that  matured  in  1815.  Some- 
thing of  the  same  spirit  is  found  in  the  treatment  of  de 
Sacy,  who  had  for  the  old  a  taste  that  Renan  shared.  ' '  What 
constitutes  the  interest  and  beauty  of  things,"  he  says,  "is 
the  stamp  of  man,  who  has  lived,  loved  and  suffered  among 
them.  A  little  town  of  Umbria,  with  its  Etruscan  walls, 
its  Roman  ruins,  its  medieval  towers,  its  Jesuit  seventeenth 
century  churches,  will  always  have  more  charm  than  our 
incessantly  rebuilt  cities,  in  which  vestiges  of  the  past  seem 
to  remain,  not  by  any  right,  but  by  favor,  and  in  the  nature 
of  theatrical  decoration."  One  of  the  features  of  de  Sacy 
was  his  old-fashioned  taste  in  literature  and  his  strict  old- 
fashioned  morality.  Uprightness  is  selected  as  his  master 
quality.  Aware  of  his  own  prejudices,  he  yet  clings  to  them 
with  perfect  honesty.  Indeed,  the  mind  of  the  moralist, 
Renan  maintains,  ought  to  be  closed  against  innovations, 
since  the  principles  he  deals  with  are  settled,  while  the 
critic,  the  man  of  open  and  free  intelligence,  requires  ever 
widening  views  and  fresh  and  larger  sympathies.  Here  again 
the  quality  involves  the  defect,  for  de  Sacy  is  found  to 
excel  rather  as  moralist  than  critic.  Yet  what  nobility,  what 
absence  of  vulgarity  in  his  taste  for  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury and  for  books  of  devotion,  what  excellence  of  classic 
style!  This  excellence  we  have  an  opportunity  to  examine 
in  the  passages  quoted  from  de  Sacy,  and  it  is  a  good  test 
of  the  classic  character  of  Renan 's  own  style  that,  however 
different  in  certain  elements  of  technic,  it  is  hardly  distin- 
guishable in  tone  from  these  quotations. 

The  first  part  of  the  essay  just  discussed  treats  of  de 
Sacy,  the  moralist;  the  second,  after  a  glance  at  de  Sacy, 
the  critic,  is  devoted  to  the  Liberal  School.     Here  Renan 

190 


GROWING  REPUTATION 

sets  forth  his  political  views,  soon  to  be  still  further  elab- 
orated in  his  article  "Concerning  the  Philosophy  of  Con- 
temporary History,  as  suggested  by  the  Memoires  of  M. 
Guizot. ' '  ^*  Though  himself  a  liberal,  Renan  finds  fault  with 
the  Liberal  School,  his  chief  objection  being  against  its  atti- 
tude toward  the  French  Revolution.  In  his  view,  the  his- 
tory of  France  resolves  itself  into  a  conflict  between  the 
Latin  spirit  of  administrative  centralization  and  the  Ger- 
manic spirit  of  individual  liberty.  The  French  nobility,  who 
should  have  stood  against  the  king  for  their  own  rights, 
and  therefore  for  the  rights  of  all,  as  the  English  nobles 
had  done,  abdicated  their  function,  and,  under  Louis  XIV, 
became  mere  servants  of  a  royal  tyrant.  Hence,  the  only 
way  out  was  revolution ;  but  the  Revolution  itself  was  doomed 
to  failure,  for  liberty  can  be  founded  only  on  institutions 
that  have  long  endured,  and  not  on  abstract  theory.  More- 
over, the  movement  fell  into  incompetent  hands,  and  re- 
sulted in  an  even  greater  burden  of  centralized  administra- 
tion, its  code  disdaining  personal  rights,  moral  obligations 
and  liberal  culture,  and  leading,  under  the  despotism  of  ma- 
terial interests,  to  mediocrity.  Neither  the  Restoration  nor 
the  February  monarchy  had  appreciated  its  task,  which 
should  have  been  the  establishment  of  a  legitimate  heredi- 
tary dynasty,  in  the  hands  of  a  family  set  apart  to  protect 
the  rights  and  liberties  of  all  by  preventing  any  group,  large 
or  small,  from  exercising  undue  and  oppressive  authority, 
either  by  republican  tyranny  or  praetorian  Caesarism.  The 
government  should  never  itself  interfere  with  freedom  of 
assembly  or  freedom  of  thought  and  speech,  unless  these 
attack  the  very  foundations  of  government  itself,  and  it 
should  have  no  concern  whatsoever  with  the  subject-matter 
of  education  or  with  religious  belief.    The  liberalism  of  Re- 


"Bevue  des  deux  Mondes,  July  1,   1859.     Reprinted  in   (juestiona 
COntemporavnes, 

191 


ERNEST  RENAN 

nan  much  resembles  the  liberalism  of  Edmund  Burke,  though 
he  seems  to  have  known  of  Burke  only  the  Essay  on  the 
Sublime  and  Beautiful.  At  any  rate,  he  thinks  on  these  sub- 
jects like  a  statesman,  and  the  substantial  character  of  his 
political  philosophy,  its  method  and  its  applications  support 
Talleyrand's  view  of  the  value  of  theological  studies  as 
a  preparation  for  statecraft.^* 

VI 

Meanwhile,  other  cares  occupied  Renan's  attention.  In 
1857,  the  death  of  Quatremere  left  vacant  the  coveted  chair 
in  the  College  de  France.  To  this  Renan  felt  himself  called 
both  by  his  abilities  and  by  his  attainments.  It  had  been 
the  goal  of  his  ambition  since  his  seminary  days.  More  re- 
cently, in  an  article  on  Ramus  {Dehats,  January  5,  1856),  he 
had  expounded  the  role  of  the  College  as  a  propagator  of 
new  ideas,  the  bulwark  of  liberty  of  teaching,  the  suitable 
home  for  branches  of  science  not  yet  complete,  but  in  the 
making.  "When  Quatremere  died,  he  gave  an  analysis  of 
his  merits  and  defects  {Dehats^  October  20,  1857),  his  vast 
learning  and  his  lack  of  philosophical  views,  his  indefati- 
gable labors  and  his  antiquated  philology.  '  *  He  did  not  per- 
haps observe  delicately  enough  the  essential  shade  of  dif- 
ference that  should  distinguish  a  chair  of  Hebrew,  Chaldaic 
and  Syrian  Literature  at  the  College  de  France  from  a  chair 
of  'Holy  Scriptures'  in  a  faculty  of  theology.  ...  In  a 
course  in  which  Hebrew  literature  was  treated,  as  Hindoo 
literature  is  in  a  course  in  Sanscrit  or  Chinese  literature  in 
a  course  in  Chinese,  that  is,  as  an  implement  for  the  study 
of  the  origins  of  a  portion  of  humanity,  such  questions  (i.e., 
as  to  whether  or  not  the  sun  actually  stood  still  at  Joshua's 
command)  could  never  arise.  "*°     Conciliation  of  the  cleri- 

^See  Morley's  Life  of  Gladstone,  vol.  i,  p.  515, 

*  Both  essays  are  reprinted  in  Questions  contemporavnes, 

192 


GROWING  REPUTATION 

cal  party  at  the  expense  of  his  scientific  conscience  is  obvi- 
ously far  from  Kenan's  thought.  Caring  nothing  for  the 
attitude  of  the  ministry,  he  made  every  effort  to  secure  the 
vote  of  the  Academy  of  Inscriptions  and  of  the  Faculty 
of  the  College,*^  but  the  Minister  of  Public  Instruction  post- 
poned the  call  for  candidates  and  the  chair  remained  vacant 
for  five  years.*^ 

Simultaneous  with  these  happenings  in  the  outer  world 
were  some  changes  in  Kenan's  home  life.  On  October  28, 
1857,  was  born  his  first  child,  a  son  whom  he  named  Ary. 
The  babe  was  baptized  November  11  in  the  church  of  Saint- 
Thomas-d'Aquin,  the  officiating  priest  being  the  Abbe 
Saint-Paul  Taillandier,  vicaire  de  garde.  Kenan's  mother 
came  to  Paris  to  act  as  godmother  in  this  ceremony,  and 
thenceforth  until  her  death  resided  with  her  son.  The  bright 
old  lady  and  the  bright  young  wife  seem  to  have  been  very 
companionable;  and  Henriette,  finding  a  new  object  of  de- 
votion in  the  baby,  grew  more  contented  and  felt  that  she 
was  not  a  superfluous  member  of  the  family.  All  three 
women  were  devoted  to  the  abstracted  scholar,  who  often 
hardly  noticed  the  attentions  of  which  he  was  the  object. 
For  his  mother,  however,  he  had  a  particular  solicitude,  and 
he  spent  the  twilight  hour  with  her  every  day.  This  tender- 
ness she  reciprocated.  She  liked  to  talk  with  every  comer 
about  her  Ernest  and  any  one  who  would  talk  to  her  of  him 
became  her  friend.  Sainte-Beuve,  who  had  once  been  re- 
ceived by  her  in  Kenan's  absence  (1862),  says  that  she  had 
a  veritable  cult  for  her  son,  which  she  manifested  as  she 

**See  Berthelot  Correspondance. 

**When  a  chair  at  the  College  de  France  fell  vacant,  the  procedure 
Tvas  for  the  minister  to  call  for  two  nominations  each  from  the  Fac- 
ulty of  the  College  and  from  the  appropriate  Academie  of  the  Institut. 
From  the  possible  four,  often  only  two,  names  presented,  he  made  his 
choice  for  the  appointment,  but  if  the  same  name  headed  both  lists, 
he  was  practically  obliged  merely  to  confirm  the  selection  thus  made. 
Renan  seems  to  have  felt  sure  of  the  Academie,  but  to  have  had  some 
doubts  about  the  Faculty. 

193 


ERNEST  RENAN 

showed  her  visitor  the  rooms  of  the  apartment  and  the 
study.*'  Henrietta,  Sainte-Benve  had  only  seen  once  cas- 
ually when  she  opened  the  door  for  him.**  The  friendship  of 
these  two  great  critics  was,  it  is  evident,  one  of  public  places 
apart  from  the  domestic  circle. 

In  the  autumn  of  1858,  we  find  Renan  making  a  trip  to 
the  south  with  his  wife,  and  in  1859  one  to  the  north,  though 
not  very  far  from  Paris,  with  his  sister,  both  trips  having 
in  view  a  study  of  fourteenth-century  art  that  he  was  writing 
for  the  Histoire  littermre  de  la  France.  Henri|W;e,  indeed, 
was  his  indispensable  helper  in  this  work,  for  sEe  examined 
many  books,  collected  all  the  materials  from  the  archceologi- 
cal  journals,  and  even  contributed  her  own  judgments,  which 
her  brother  often  adopted.*^  The  southern  trip  covered 
Avignon  and  the  Comtat  Venaissin,  in  search  of  monuments 
contemporary  with  the  pontifical  court  in  that  region.  From 
Lyons  the  young  couple  traveled  on  a  freight  boat.  **The 
discomfort,"  said  Renan  in  1891,  "surpassed  anything  that 
could  be  imagined,  but  we  were  ravished."*^  With  Hen- 
riette  he  visited  le  Vexin,  le  Valois,  le  Beauvoisis,  and  the 
region  of  Noyon,  Soissons,  Laon  and  Reims.*^  The  resulting 
essay  clearly  shows  that  the  author  had  not  only  gathered 
information  from  books  and  manuscripts,  but  that  he  had 
studied  the  objects  with  his  own  keen  and  well-trained  eyes. 
The  death  of  Ary  Scheffer,  July  17,  1858,  cast  a  shadow  over 
these  pleasant  investigations  but  did  not  by  any  means  in- 
terrupt them. 

Writing  the  gossip  of  Paris  to  ]Sdouard  de  Suckau  under 
date  of  April  29,  1858,  Taine  says:  "Renan  is  manufac- 
turing books,  one  with  his  Language  from  the  Liberie  de 


*•  Letter  of  June  21,  1868,  in  Nouvelle  Correspondance. 

*'Ibid.,  June  2,  1863. 

^  Saeur  Henriette,  p.  36. 

**  Feuilles  detacMes,  p.  114. 

"  Acad^mie  de^  Inscriptions,  Comptes  rendus,  vol,  iii, 

194 


GROWING  REPUTATION 

Penser,  another  with  short  articles.  The  one  on  language 
is  a  typographical  curiosity,  an  octavo  made  up  of  two  Re- 
view articles ! "  **  The  Origin  of  Language,  just  out  when 
Taine  wrote,  is  not  quite  so  absurd  as  he  would  have  it. 
The  Book  of  Job,  which  appeared  in  Decernber,  is  a  work 
of  moment,  and  was  called  in  the  hommage  at  the  Academy 
of  Inscriptions  an  "exegesis  as  intelligent  as  it  is  elo- 
quent. ' '  *®  More  important  still  is  the  collection  of  articles 
from  the  Revue  and  the  Dehats,  Moral  and  Critical  Essays, 
the  high-water  mark  of  Renan's  production  in  this  line. 
Many  collections  appeared  later,  and  each  of  these  contains 
admirable  work,  but  never  again  did  he  attain  such  a  level 
of  felicity  in  both  subject-matter  and  treatment  as  is  here 
exhibited.  This  is  one  of  the  half-dozen  volumes  that  rep- 
resent R^nan  at  his  best. 

The  emphasis  in  these  essays  is  on  moral,  social  and  po- 
litical questions.  Unity  the  book  does  not  claim,  unless  it 
be  the  unity  of  tendency.  Liberty  and  idealism  furnish 
the  thread  upon  which  are  strung  discussions  which  range 
from  contemporary  leaders  of  thought,  through  Italian  poli- 
tics, Procopius,  Patelin,  the  Academy,  to  their  culmination 
in  the  essay  on  Celtic  Poetry.  Whatever  the  subject,  it  offers 
the  occasion  for  wide  views  and,  almost  without  exception, 
for  a  stab  at  the  Empire,  with  its  materialism  and  tyranny. 
Is  it  Patelin,  we  see  the  close  of  the  Middle  Ages,  and  the 
debased  century  this  piece  represents  provides  the  moral: 
* '  If  you  wish  to  succeed,  be  a  rascal ;  but  if  you  wish  to  be 
still  more  certain  of  success,  try  to  be  or  to  appear  a  fool." 
Is  it  Hariri,  we  perceive  the  qualities  of  the  Mussulman 
world,  with  a  final  glance  at  the  value  of  freedom  of  thought, 
teaching  us  that  false  rhetoric  is  a  result  of  the  interdiction 
of  such  freedom:    "And  it  is  a  great  error  to  believe  that 


**  Taine,  -So  Vie  et  sa  correspondance,  vol.  ii,  p.  163. 
*•  Comptes  rendus,  December  24,  1858. 

195 


ERNEST  RENAN 

the  degrading  of  intellect  has  ever  been  a  guarantee  of 
repose."  Is  it  Procopius,  we  are  introduced  to  the  Empire 
of  Justinian  and  secret  calumny  is  traced  to  the  suppression 
of  free  speech :  ' '  The  lie  of  hatred  answers  the  lie  of  adula- 
tion; there  is  a  simple  means  of  avoiding  both,  respect  for 
human  character  and  for  liberty."  Though  indirect,  such 
thrusts  are  scarcely  veiled.  * '  Every  despotism, ' '  the  author 
casually  remarks,  "is  founded  by  persuading  societies  that 
it  will  conduct  their  affairs  better  than  they  can  themselves. 
Each  people  has  thus  in  its  history  a  moment  of  temptation 
when  the  seducer  says,  showing  all  the  good  things  of  the 
world :  *  *  I  will  give  you  all  these  if  you  will  worship  me. '  * 
Materialism  is  still  the  archf  oe.  In  the  preface  our  attention 
is  chiefly  directed  to  the  moral  life.  ' '  Good  is  good ;  evil  is 
evil.  To  hate  the  one  and  love  the  other  requires  no  system, 
and  it  is  in  this  sense  that  faith  and  love,  though  apparently 
unconnected  with  intelligence,  are  the  true  foundation  of 
moral  certitude  and  the  unique  means  possessed  by  man 
for  understanding  something  of  the  problem  of  his  origin 
and  destiny.  .  .  .  Like  the  perfumes  on  the  Erythraean  Sea, 
which  lingered  over  the  waves  and  were  wafted  afar  to  the 
ships,  this  divine  instinct  is  for  me  an  augury  of  an  un- 
known land  and  a  messenger  of  the  infinite." 

Such  moral  ideas,  it  is  obvious,  are  akin  to  the  poetic,  and 
the  preface,  like  the  volume  itself,  leads  up  to  the  two 
essays  on  poetry.  As  he  closes  his  introduction,  the  author 
is  rapt  in  Celtic  enthusiasm : 

0  fathers  of  the  obscure  tribe  at  whose  hearth  I  imbibed  my 
faith  in  the  invisible;  humble  clan  of  husbandmen  and  seamen, 
to  whom  I  owe  it  that  I  have  preserved  the  vigor  of  my  soul  in 
an  extinct  land,  in  a  century  without  hope;  you  are  doubtless 
wandering  on  those  enchanted  seas  where  our  Father  Brandon 
sought  the  land  of  promise;  you  contemplate  the  fresh  isles 
whose  verdure  is  washed  by  the  waves;  you  traverse  with  Saint 
Patrick  the  circles  of  that  world  which  our  eyes  can  no  longer 
see.     Sometimes  I  regret  that  your  bark,  in  leaving  Ireland  or 

196 


GROWING  REPUTATION 

Cambria,  did  not  submit  to  other  winds.  I  see  in  my  dreams 
those  peaceful  cities  of  Clonfert  and  Lismore,  where  I  should 
have  dwelt,  poor  Ireland,  nourished  by  the  sound  of  thy  bells, 
by  the  tale  of  thy  mysterious  odyssies.  Useless  both  thou  and 
1  in  this  world,  which  understands  naught  but  what  subdues  or 
serves  it,  let  us  flee  together  toward  the  splendid  Eden  of  the 
joys  of  the  soul,  even  that  country  which  our  saints  beheld  in 
their  dreams.  Let  us  seek  consolation  in  our  illusions,  in  our 
nobility,  in  our  disdain.  Who  knows  if  our  secret  dreams  are 
not  truer  than  the  reality?  God  is  my  witness,  ancient  fathers, 
my  sole  joy  is  to  dream  at  times  that  I  am  yourselves  made  con- 
scious and  that  through  me  you  come  to  life  and  find  again  your 
voice. 

Writing  to  Renan,  March  17,  1858,  Sainte-Beuve  said: 
"Keep  on  without  allowing  yourself  to  be  troubled  by  the 
insults  and  declamations  that  have  for  some  time  past  raged 
about  you:  such  bowlings  are  only  a  sign  of  what  you  are 
worth  and  what  those  people  fear. ' '  An  echo  of  these  bitter 
attacks  is  found  in  the  opening  pages  of  the  preface  to  the 
Moral  cmd  Critical  Essays,  where  the  author  refuses  to 
enter  into  the  controversy,  having  learned  from  de  Sacy  the 
wise  policy  of  simply  stating  his  case  and  refraining  from 
recrimination. 

The  first  decree  of  the  Congregation  of  the  Index  entered 
against  a  work  of  Renan  was  that  on  April  11,  1859,  con- 
demning his  translation  of  the  Book  of  Joh.^^  For  this  He- 
brew poem  he  very  early  expressed  his  admiration  and 
sympathy.  Writing  to  Cognat  (August  24,  1845),  he  says: 
"The  reading  of  Job  carries  me  away;  I  find  there  all  my 
feelings;  there  dwells  the  divine  spirit  of  poetry,  I  mean 
of  the  higher  poetry.  It  makes  you  touch  those  mysteries 
which  you  feel  in  your  own  heart  and  which  you  struggle 
to  formulate." 

In  the  Debais,  December  8,  1858,  at  the  end  of  a  review  of 

"Renfi  d'Ys,  p.  212. 

197 


ERNEST  RENAN 

Cahen's  version  of  the  Pentateuch,^'^  he  states  his  principles 
of  translation  as  follows: 

The  French  language  is  puritan;  it  does  not  admit  conditions. 
You  are  at  liberty  not  to  write  it;  but,  as  soon  as  you  undertake 
the  difficult  task,  you  must  pass  with  bound  hands  under  the 
Caudine  Forks  of  the  authorized  vocabulary  and  the  grammar 
consecrated  by  usage.  .  .  .  Every  translation  is  in  its  essence  im- 
perfect, since  it  is  the  result  of  a  compromise  between  contrary 
obligations:  on  the  one  hand,  the  obligation  to  be  as  faithful  as 
possible  to  the  turns  of  phrase  of  the  original;  on  the  other, 
the  obligation  to  be  French.  But  one  of  these  obligations  admits 
no  middle  course,  and  this  is  the  second.  The  duty  of  the  trans- 
lator is  fulfilled  only  when  he  has  brought  the  thought  of  his 
text  into  perfectly  correct  French.  If  the  work  he  translates 
is  wholly  foreign  to  our  spirit,  it  is  inevitable  that  his  transla- 
tion should  offer,  in  spite  of  all  his  efforts,  singular  traits,  images 
little  in  harmony  with  our  taste,  peculiarities  that  need  explanation; 
but  what  is  absolutely  forbidden  is  an  offense  against  the  obliga- 
tory rules  of  our  language. 

These  are  the  principles  adhered  to  in  the  translations  of 
Job  and  the  Song  of  Songs,  published  respectively  Decem- 
ber, 1858,  and  May,  1860.  Both  are  studies  in  the  develop- 
ment of  Hebrew  ideas,  preliminary  to  his  life  work.  In  the 
critical  essays  prefixed  to  each,  Renan  disclaims  original 
interpretations,  and  he  very  freely  cites  his  authorities. 
When  a  choice  is  offered,  he  prefers  the  conservative  view. 
In  discussing  the  question  of  dates,  he  insists  that  not  only 
grammatical  evidence  shall  be  admitted,  but  also  historical 
and  literary  considerations,  and  especially  the  dictates  of 
taste.  In  Job  he  attempts  by  varied  rhythmical  lines  to 
reproduce  "the  sonorous  cadence  that  gives  such  charm  to 
the  Hebrew  text."  In  the  Song  of  Songs  he  divides  the 
poem  into  acts  and  scenes,  with  copious  stage  directions ;  at 
the  same  time  giving  another  version  without  this  parapher- 

"■Nouvelles  Etudes  d'histoire  religieuse,  pp.  179-181.^  The  passage 
is  reprinted  verbatim  in  the  preface  to  Job,  pp.  ii  and  iii. 

198 


GROWING  REPUTATION 

nalia,  so  that  the  reader  may  suit  his  own  fancy.  We  have, 
at  any  rate,  an  arrangement  representing  what  might  have 
been,  and  based  upon  exhaustive  study  and  contemplation. 
The  principles  he  follows  are  the  same  that  guided  him  in 
his  vaster  historical  works,  of  which  these  versions  may  be 
regarded  as  precursors.  At  all  events,  the  primitive  gran- 
deur of  Joh  and  the  idyllic  charm  of  the  Song  of  Songs, 
each  representing  one  of  Kenan's  own  instincts,  are  pre- 
sented to  the  public  in  a  form  that  constitutes  a  distinct 
addition  to  the  treasures  of  French  literature. 

The  contradictory  impulses  so  characteristic  of  Renan  find 
curious  expression  in  two  articles  of  1859,  one  on  "The  Acad- 
emy" {Debats,  January  29),"  and  the  other  on  "The  The- 
ology of  Beranger"  (Debats,  December  17).^^  In  the  former 
we  find  a  new  spirit,  traceable,  it  seems,  to  Saint-Beuve;  in 
the  latter,  the  old  hardness  of  the  spiritual  crusader.  The 
great  merit  of  the  Academy  is  seen  in  the  injection  of  the 
spirit  of  polite  society,  of  the  man  of  the  world,  into  science 
and  literature.  Purging  the  language  of  the  dross  of  pe- 
dantry, it  insists  that  the  model  for  good  writing  is  found 
in  the  people  who  talk  well.  Recalling  that  he  used  to  curse 
the  shackles  that  prevented  him  from  saying  what  he  wanted 
to,  Renan  has  finally  come  to  see  the  advantages  of  such 
limitations.  "Full  intellectual  maturity,"  he  says,  "is  not 
really  reached  until  it  becomes  plain  that  everything  may 
be  said  without  any  scholastic  apparatus  and  in  the  lan- 
guage of  people  of  the  world,  and  that  the  Dictionary  of  the 
Academy  contains  all  that  is  necessary  for  the  expression 
of  every  thought,  however  delicate,  however  new,  however 
refined." 

On  the  other  hand,  the  old  Renan  bursts  out,  and  poor 
Beranger  is  clubbed  over  the  head  in  the  most  savage  fash- 


"  Essais  de  Morale  et  de  Critique. 
**  Questions  contemporaines. 

199 


ERNEST  RENAN 

ion.  He  is  guilty  of  artificiality,  pretentious  declamation, 
false  gayety;  coquetting  with  immorality,  he  plays  the 
role  of  a  spurious  drunkard  and  libertine;  orthodox  in  his 
revelry,  he  bows,  glass  in  hand,  before  his  God,  the  God  of 
prostitutes  and  topers,  the  God  who  is  slapped  on  the  back 
and  treated  as  a  comrade  and  a  good  fellow.  Renan,  bow- 
ing before  the  mystery  of  the  infinite,  is  scandalized  at  this 
vulgarity;  and  his  irritation  is  increased  when  he  reflects 
on  the  general  alliance  of  dogmatism  with  frivolity.  Be- 
ranger,  in  fact,  becomes  the  scapegoat  for  the  bourgeois 
spirit  of  France,  suffering  a  vicarious  castigation.  The  piti- 
less blows  rained  upon  him  aroused  public  sympathy  and 
protest,  almost  a  storm,  but  Renan,  offended  in  one  of  his 
cherished  sentiments,  remained  obdurate,  and,  though  he 
later  spoke  more  gently  of  the  poet,  he  never  really  retracted 
or  made  amends. 

Toward  the  close  of  1859,  Renan  was  led  to  rehearse  his 
philosophical  ideas  for  the  first  time  in  public.  The  occa- 
sion was  a  review  of  La  Metaphysique  et  la  science,  ou 
principes  de  mStaphysique  positive,  by  fitienne  Vacherot, 
the  article  appearing  in  the  Revue  des  deux  Mondes  for 
January  15,  1860,*^*  with  the  title  "De  la  Metaphysique  et 
de  son  avenir."  The  praise  of  the  author,  whose  inde- 
pendent thinking  had  cost  him  his  position  as  master  of 
studies  at  the  J&cole  Normale,  is  significant  in  view  of  what 
Renan  himself  was  soon  to  undergo,  but  for  the  substance  of 
the  book  there  is  little  approval.  Since  1830,  Renan  thinks, 
philosophy  has  been  dead.  The  official  brand  taught  in 
this  state  institution  he  finds  entirely  sterile,  producing 
pedants  and  iterators  rather  than  scholars  and  thinkers. 
"If  I  had  been  cut  out  for  chief  of  a  school,"  he  remarks, 
"I  should  have  shown  a  singular  inconsistency;  I  should 
have  loved  only  those  of  my  disciples  who  severed  themselves 

"*  Dialogues  FhUosophiqv^s. 

200 


GROWING  REPUTATION 

from  me."  (P.  271.)  For  the  natural  and  historical  sci- 
ences he  sees  a  vast  future;  for  metaphysics,  none  at  all. 
Philosophy,  indeed,  is  not  a  separate  science,  but  a  side  of 
all  sciences.  Here  we  are  on  the  ground  of  his  still  un- 
published book  of  a  decade  before.  What  he  proceeds  to  say 
of  erudition,  philology  and  humanity  (pp.  295-309)  consists 
word  for  word,  comparisons  and  examples  included,  of  sen- 
tences from  various  pages  of  The  Future  of  Science  (Chap- 
ters IX-XIII).  The  phrases  are  the  same,  but  the  total 
effect  is  more  moderate,  the  emphasis  is  modified.  God,  he 
proclaims,  is  revealed,  not  in  Nature, — which  is  wholly  un- 
moral, showing  no  favor  to  virtue,  inflicting  no  punishment 
on  wickedness,  in  fact  often  favoring  the  wicked, — but  in 
the  moral  sentiments  of  man,  for  without  God,  duty,  devo- 
tion and  self-sacrifice  are  inexplicable.  It  is  indeed  not  rea- 
son, but  sentiment,  that  determines  God,  who  can  thus  be 
better  expressed  by  poetry  than  by  philosophy.  "Every 
proposition  applied  to  God,"  says  Renan,  still  repeating  his 
earlier  work,  "is  impertinent,  with  a  single  exception:  He 
is."  "The  glory  of  philosophy  is  not  to  solve  problems, 
but  to  propose  them,  for  to  propose  them  is  to  attest  their 
reality,  and  that  is  all  man  can  do  in  a  matter  in  which,  from 
the  very  nature  of  the  subject,  he  can  only  possess  frag- 
ments of  truth."     (P.  332.) 

' '  O  Heavenly  Father,  I  know  not  what  thou  reservest  for 
us";  thus  he  concludes  with  a  prayer  that  simply  expresses 
in  a  new  form  the  thoughts  that  persisted  unchanged  from 
his  early  days.  "The  faith  that  thou  dost  not  permit  us 
to  efface  from  our  hearts,  is  it  a  consolation  granted  to 
render  our  fragile  destiny  endurable?  Is  it  a  beneficent 
illusion  wisely  wrought  by  thy  pity,  or  a  deep  instinct,  a 
revelation  that  suffices  for  those  who  are  worthy?  Can  it 
be  despair  that  is  right,  and  will  the  truth  be  sad?  Thou 
hast  not  willed  that  such  doubts  should  receive  a  clear  an- 
swer, to  the  end  that  faith  in  goodness  should  not  remain 

201 


ERNEST  RENAN 

without  merit  and  that  virtue  should  not  rest  on  calcula- 
tion. A  clear  revelation  would  have  removed  the  barrier 
between  the  noble  and  the  vulgar  soul;  evidence  in  such 
matters  would  have  struck  at  our  liberty.  It  is  upon  our 
inward  inclinations  that  thou  hast  made  our  faith  depend. 
In  everything  that  is  the  object  of  science  and  of  rational 
discussion,  thou  hast  delivered  truth  to  the  most  intelligent ; 
in  moral  and  religious  things,  thou  hast  judged  that  it  should 
belong  to  the  virtuous.  It  would  have  been  iniquitous  that 
here  genius  and  brains  should  constitute  a  privilege,  and 
that  the  beliefs  that  ought  to  be  the  common  possession  of 
all,  should  be  the  fruit  of  reasonings  more  or  less  well  con- 
ducted, of  researches  more  or  less  favored.  Blessed  art  thou 
for  thy  mystery,  blessed  for  thy  concealment,  blessed  for  hav- 
ing preserved  full  liberty  to  our  hearts!"  (Pp.  332-334.) 
The  translation  of  orthodox  formulas  into  free  idealism 
in  harmony  with  a  scientific  and  critical  spirit  is  here,  as 
it  was  in  The  Future  of  Science  and  as  it  will  continue  to 
be  in  The  Examinati&n  of  Philosophic  Conscience,  the  abid- 
ing basis  of  Renan  's  perception  of  existence. 

VII 

It  is  curious  how  little  Renan 's  family  experiences  af- 
fected his  writings.  A  daughter,  Ernestine,  born  July  20, 
1859,  lived  but  seven  months.  Her  death  in  February,  1860, 
moved  him  deeply,  as  the  Invocation  to  Ernestine  ^°  shows, 
but  in  his  writings  of  the  time  there  is  no  trace  of  his  emo- 
tions, Titine  cherie  fitted  into  his  philosophy,  no  less  than 
every  other  phenomenon.  "Thy  passage  in  our  transitory 
life  was  short ;  but  thy  vestige  will  endure  long  in  our  hearts 
and  be  eternal  in  the  bosom  of  God.  ...  If  the  ocean,  in 
which  everything  that  is  individual  has  its  origin  and  its 
end,  seems  to  us  like  vacuity,  that  fact  comes  from  the  veil 

**  Fragments  intimes. 

202 


GROWING  REPUTATION 

which  covers  our  eyes  and  the  narrow  horizon  of  this  earth 
on  which  thou  didst  not  care  to  linger." 

By  this  time  the  scholar  and  critic  had  become  one  of  the 
Parisian  notables,  sought  out  by  foreigners  who  visited  the 
capital.  In  1859  Matthew  Arnold  met  him  and  found  in 
him  a  congenial  spirit,^*  and  Grant  Duff,  whose  specialty 
was  making  the  acquaintance  of  eminent  men,  sought  him 
out  at  The  Library  as  one  of  the  persons  he  most  desired 
to  know.  Bersot  writes  (May  1,  1858)  :  "It  is  with  great 
pleasure  that  I  see  you  take  your  place  in  the  world ;  it  is  one 
of  the  things  that  console  me  the  most  for  being  nothing 
myself. "  "  In  an  article  on  Thierry  in  the  Revue  des  deux 
Mondes  in  1858,  the  author  speaks  of  Renan  as  "an  eminent 
critic."  Taine's  letter  of  January  3,  1857,  shows  the  ad- 
miration of  a  slightly  younger  contemporary  for  his  col- 
league on  the  Dehats,  to  whom  he  pays  homage  as  a  critic 
and  philosopher.  In  a  letter  of  January  25,  1858,  he  pre- 
dicts that  Renan  will  be  one  of  the  great  men  of  the  cen- 
tury. Nevertheless,  Renan  felt  that  he  had  just  begun.  ' '  You 
have  constructed  your  monument,"  he  writes  Berthelot, 
who  had  just  published  his  Organic  Chemistry^  "but  I  have 
as  yet  built  only  the  porch  to  mine";  and  he  resolves  to  be 
"an  owl,"  parsimonious  in  correspondence  and  conversa- 
tion, until  he  has  finished  his  Origins  of  Christianity.^^ 

When  this  letter  was  written,  he  was  on  the  point  of 
starting  for  the  East  to  obtain  the  experiences  which  made 
that  work  what  it  is.  As  early  as  1857  (October  9  and  De- 
cember 11),  he  had  read  before  the  Academy  of  Inscrip- 
tions a  memoire  on  "The  Origin  and  true  Character  of  the 
Phoenician  History  that  bears  the  name  of  Sanchonia- 
thon, ' '  "^  and  in  a  note  near  the  end,  he  had  expressed  the 

"Letters,  December  24,  1859. 
"Bersot  et  ses  amis,  p.  177. 
"October  4,  1860. 

"  Memoir es  de  I'Academie  des  Inscriptions,  tome  xxiii;  reprint  94 
pp.  from  the  Imprimerie  Imperiale,  1858.    A  preliminary  essay  on  thia 

203 


ERNEST  RENAN 

hope  that  excavations  might  be  made  at  Byblos  to  find  the 
record  of  Phoenician  cosmogony  on  sacred  steles  which  he 
was  sure  must  be  there.  Mme.  Hortense  Cornu,  Louis  Na- 
poleon's playmate  in  childhood,  had  attended  practically  all 
the  meetings  of  the  Academy  since  1856,®°  and  her  great  in- 
fluence with  the  Emperor  was  often  used  to  advance  philolog- 
ical science.  It  was  through  her  that  the  excavations  were 
determined  upon  by  the  government  and  Renan  selected  to 
conduct  them. 

The  Empire  was  rapidly  becoming  liberal.  The  fete  of 
August  15,  1859,  the  prominent  themes  of  which  were  Im- 
perial glory  and  the  return  of  peace,  led  to  the  proclama- 
tion on  the  following  day  of  amnesty  for  political  offenses 
and  the  annulment  of  warnings  given  to  the  press  under 
the  decree  of  February  17,  1852.  While  Victor  Hugo,  Quinet 
and  a  few  others  refused  all  offers  of  reconciliation,  Sainte- 
Beuve,  Nisard,  Gautier  and  Augier  were  now  found  in  the 
court  circle.  The  Journal  des  Dehats  acquiesced  in  the  situ- 
ation on  the  principle  of  taking  the  best  one  could  get.  Re- 
nan,  therefore,  after  some  hesitation,  accepted  the  appoint- 
ment and,  taking  Henriette  with  him  as  secretary,  he  left 
Paris  October  18,  1860.«^ 

same  subject  appeared  in  the  Journal  Asiatique  for  January,  1856. 
About  a  dozen  technical  philological  articles,  some  rather  lengthy,  others 
of  only  a  page  or  two,  appeared  from  1850  to  1860.  Eenan  was 
always  a  prodigious  worker, 

*"  Article  on  her  in  Feuilles  detacMes. 

"There  was  still  much  petty  oppression  in  the  department  of  educa- 
tion. Writing  to  Suckau,  April  29,  1858,  Taine  tells  him  that  the 
minister  had  forbidden  Weiss  and  Talbot  to  write  for  the  Bevue  de 
I 'instruction  publique,  a  journal  that,  like  the  Debats,  had,  at  the 
Coup  d']6tat,  eliminated  politics,  but  put  liberalism  in  book  reviews. 
See  Bersot  et  ses  amis,  p.  125.  The  Bevue  germanique  was  also  dan- 
gerous to  write  for,  and  of  Buloz,  proprietor  of  the  Bevue  des  deux 
Mondes,  the  minister  said:  "I  will  not  permit  our  professors  to  write 
for  that  fellow."  Taine  himself  had  to  suppress  a  phrase  in  his  book 
on  the  Pyrenees — "in  spite  of  myself,  I  thought  of  the  vanished  re- 
ligions which  were  so  beautiful ' ' — as  insulting  to  Christianity,  in  order 
that  the  censor  should  permit  the  volume  to  be  sold  on  the  railroads. 
Correspondance,  vol.  ii,  pp.  163-166.     On  the  other  hand,  the  clericals 

204 


GROWING  REPUTATION 

His  wife,  and  *  *  Baby, ' '  as  Ary  is  always  called,  remained 
with  his  mother  in  the  Paris  apartment.  His  brother  Alain 
was  not  far  off,  as  he  had  moved  to  Neuilly,  Professor  Eg- 
ger  and  Baron  d 'Eckstein,  a  distinguished  Sanskritist,  roy- 
alist and  Catholic  journalist,  often  called,  and  Berthelot  was 
a  constant  visitor,  whose  letters  never  fail  to  give  pictures  of 
the  family  group,  especially  "Baby."  Another  subject  of 
the  first  part  of  this  correspondence  is  the  reception  ac- 
corded to  the  translation  of  the  Song  of  Songs,  recently 
published,"^  and  to  an  article,  "Concerning  the  Religious 
Future  of  Modem  Societies,"  which  came  out  in  the  Revue 
des  deux  Mondes  for  October  15.  This  was  the  first  article 
from  Renan's  pen  that  headed  the  table  of  contents  of  the 
magazine,  a  position  which  manifests  the  importance  at- 
tached to  both  the  article  itself  and  its  author. 

The  "Religious  Future  of  Modern  Societies,"  is  the  most 
formally  constructed  of  the  essays  of  this  period  and,  with 
the  exception  of  that  on  metaphysics,  the  most  dogmatic 
in  manner,  a  reversion  to  tyx>e.®^  Berthelot  finds  that  * '  There 
is  in  it  less  phantasy  and  more  measure  than  in  some  of 
its  predecessors"  (October  25).  After  deciding  that  no  new 
religion  adapted  to  the  needs  of  our  age  is  possible,  Renan 
gives  a  historical  review  of  Christianity,  a  survey  of  its 
present  state,  and  a  forecast  of  its  future  possibilities.  His 
one  solution  of  every  problem  is  liberty.  "The  division  of 
the  Churches  will  save  the  future  from  the  excesses  of  too 

suffered  for  political  agitation,  and  in  1861,  even  so  eminent  a  Catholic 
professor  as  Victor  de  Laprade  was  dismissed  from  his  chair  at 
Lyons  for  publishing  "  Les  Muses  d'£tat." 

"A  note  on  this  book,  together  with  the  preface,  appeared  in  iho 
DSbats,  May  21. 

"  A  curious  evidence  of  this  reversion  is  a  page  from  Avenir  printed 
in  the  Bevue,  pp.  768,  769,  but  dropped  in  the  reprinted  essay.  It 
would  have  come  on  p.  353  of  Questions  contemporaines  between  "n'a 
point  passe"  and  "Remarquons."  The  passage  from  p.  365,  "Enfin, 
I'iglise  romain,"  to  p.  367,  "S'en  siparer,"  does  not  appear  in  the 
Bevue.  There  are,  as  always,  other  corrections,  chiefly  in  the  direction 
of  definiteness  of  expression. 

205 


ERNEST  RENAN 

strong  a  religious  power,  just  as  the  division  of  Europe  must 
forever  prevent  the  return  of  that  orhis  Bomcmus,  of  that 
closed  circle,  in  which  there  was  no  possible  recourse  from 
the  fearful  tyranny  that  is  always  bom  of  unity.  "^*  The 
future  should,  in  his  view,  rest  on  the  religious  principles 
of  Jesus  without  dogmatism.  '  *  The  idea  of  a  spiritual  power 
opposed  to  the  temporal  power  should  be  modified.  The 
spiritual  is  assuredly  not  the  temporal,  but  the  spiritual 
does  not  constitute  a  'power,'  it  constitutes  a  'liberty.'  " 
(P.  405.)  The  essence  of  Kenan's  conception  is  in  the  fol- 
lowing passage : 

Every  prejudice  is  an  error,  and  yet  the  man  of  prejudices  is 
far  superior  to  the  nugatory  man  without  character  that  our  in- 
different century  has  produced.  Every  abuse  is  blameworthy, 
and  yet  society  lives  only  by  abuses.  Every  dogmatic  affirmation, 
shut  up  in  a  finite  phrase,  is  subject  to  objection,  and  yet  the  day 
humanity  should  cease  to  affirm,  it  would  cease  to  exist.  Every 
religious  form  is  imperfect,  and  yet  religion  cannot  exist  with- 
out forms.  Religion  is  true  only  in  its  quintessence,  and  yet| 
when  you  subtilize  it  too  much,  you  destroy  it.  The  philosopher 
who,  struck  by  the  prejudices,  the  abuses,  the  errors  contained  in 
its  forms,  thinks  to  obtain  truth  by  takmg  refuge  in  abstractions, 
substitutes  for  the  reality,  something  that  has  never  existed.  The 
sage  is  he  who  sees  at  once  that  all  is  image,  prejudice,  symbol, 
and  that  the  image,  the  prejudice,  the  symbol  are  necessary,  useful 
and  true.  .  .  .  One  can  admit  and  love  a  symbol,  since  this  symbol 
has  had  its  place  in  the  consciousness  of  humanity,  .  .  .  The 
problem  of  truth  and  justice  is  like  that  of  the  quadrature  of  the 
circle,  approach  as  near  as  you  may,  you  never  reach  it.  (Pp. 
414,  415.) 

"When  Renan  in  Syria  prayed  in  every  Maronite  church,  he 
was  not,  as  one  who  saw  him  thought,^^  trying  to  curry  favor 
with  the  natives,  or  even  simply  continuing  early  habits ;  he 
was  carrying  his  theory  into  practice. 

**Qv^stion8  contemporaines,  p.  359. 

*  fidouard  Lockroy,  Au  Hasard  de  la  vie. 

206 


CHAPTER  VII 

SYRIA;  HENRIETTTB  RENAN;  PROFESSOR  OF  HEBREW;  "lIFE  OF  JESUS" 

(1860-1863) 

October  18,  1860,  Renan  left  Paris  for  Syria,  where  he  was 
engaged  in  excavations  and  travels  for  nearly  a  year.  After  a  trip 
to  Jerusalem,  he  wrote  his  Life  of  Jesus  at  Ghazir.  On  Septem- 
ber 24,  1861,  his  sister  Henriette  died  at  Amschit,  while  he  too 
was  suffering  from  fever.  He  reached  Paris  October  24.  His 
only  publications  during  his  absence  were  reports  in  the  Moniteur. 
Having  been  presented  for  the  professorship  of  the  Hebrew,  Chal- 
daic  and  Syrian  languages  in  the  College  de  France  by  the  Acad- 
emy of  Inscriptions  and  the  Faculty,  he  was  appointed  by  an 
imperial  decree  dated  January  11,  1862.  His  inaugural  lecture 
on  February  22,  published  in  the  Debats  February  25,  created  a 
disturbance  and  led  to  the  suspension  of  his  course  by  decree  of 
February  26.  On  March  1,  his  daughter  Noemi  was  born,  and  on 
March  16,  Henri  Scheffer,  his  father-in-law,  died.  In  May  Renan 
was  in  Holland  and  delivered  an  address  before  the  theological  fac- 
ulty of  Leyden.  He  was  the  subject  of  two  essays  by  Sainte-Beuve 
in  the  Constitutionnel,  June  2  and  9.  In  August,  he  entered  the 
circle  of  the  Princess  Matilde  at  Saint-Gratien,  having  soon  after 
his  return  from  Syria  also  entered  the  circle  of  Prince  Napoleon 
(Plon-Plon).  His  summer  was  passed  at  Chalifer  near  Lagny. 
In  literary  work,  he  had  completed  his  discourse  on  French  art 
in  the  fourteenth  century  for  Vol.  XXIV  of  the  Histoire  litterairef 
de  la  France,  and  he  was  busy  with  his  Life  of  Jesus,  his  report 
of  the  Phoenician  expedition,  and  a  new  edition  of  his  book  on 
Semitic  languages.  In  September  Henriette  Renan  was  privately 
printed  for  friends.  The  great  event  of  1863  was  the  publication 
of  his  Life  of  Jesus  on  June  24.  It  aroused  a  storm  and  it  ran 
through  numerous  editions.  Renan  passed  his  summer  near  Saint- 
Malo  and  on  the  Island  of  Jersey,  diverting  himself  by  writing 
out  his  philosophical  views  in  the  form  of  a  letter  to  Berthelot, 
published  in  the  Bevue  des  deux  Mondes,  October  15.     On  his 


ERNEST  RENAN 

return  to  Paris,  he  opened  his  Hebrew  course  privately  at  his 
home.  On  March  28,  he  entered  the  Magny  dinners.  A  popular 
edition  of  Jesus,  without  notes,  was  published  March  3,  1864.  His 
dismissal  from  the  chair  of  Hebrew  was  accomplished  on  June  12, 
preceded  and  accompanied  by  a  journalistic  controversy.  At  this 
time  Renan  procured  a  summer  home  at  Sevres,  to  which  he  re- 
sorted for  several  years.  He  wrote  a  few  minor  articles  for  the 
Debats  and  one  on  "Higher  Instruction  in  France"  for  the  Bevue 
des  deux  Mondes  (May  1). 


Leaving  Paris,  October  18,  1860,  Renan  and  Henrietta 
reached  Marseilles  the  next  day,  where  on  the  21st  they  bade 
farewell  to  Berthelot  and  embarked  for  the  Orient,  In  a 
week  they  were  at  Beirut,  and  Renan  plunged  into  his  task 
of  excavation,  assisted  by  soldiers  of  the  army  of  occupa- 
tion,^ and  having  a  naval  steamer  at  his  disposal  for  coastal 
trips.  He  was  the  first  Syrian  excavator  on  a  large  scale. 
From  November  26  to  February  9  he  was  at  Byblos,  then 
at  Tyre,  at  Sidon,  at  Tortosa  and  other  places  on  the  coast, 
making  excursions  into  the  Lebanon  mountains  and  even 
spending  a  week  in  the  desert  under  a  tent,  which  he  found 
agreeable  enough  in  good  weather.  He  was  often  eight 
or  ten  hours  in  the  saddle,  undergoing  all  sorts  of  fatigues 
and  hardships  without  complaint.  His  interest  in  what  he 
saw  eclipsed  all  sense  of  discomfort.  "On  my  mule  I  ride 
whole  days  on  the  summits  of  Lebanon,"  he  writes  Berthe- 
lot (November  30),  **on  roads  a  foot  broad,  above  deep-cut 
valleys  whose  bottom  can  scarcely  be  seen.  .  .  .  The  roads 
are  of  an  unimaginable  break-neck  sort;  but  you  can  trust 
your  beast  absolutely." 

In  spite  of  occasional  remarks  about  the  Syrian  popula- 
tion or  outbursts  of  enthusiasm  over  the  flowers  and  the 
glory  of  the  scenery,  the  letters  of  this  period  are  far  less 

*Just  after  Eenan's  appointment,  a  massacre  of  Christians  in 
IfCbanon  led  to  the  occupation  of  Syria  by  French  troops. 

303 


SYRIA 

valuable  to  a  student  of  Renan  than  those  written  ten 
years  before  from  Italy.  The  thinker  was  now  fully  formed, 
and  while  he  might  still  add  much  to  his  experience,  while 
he  might  fill  up  some  unoccupied  spaces  in  the  chambers  of 
his  mind,  there  were  no  new  rooms  to  be  unlocked  and 
explored.  He  had  come,  moreover,  to  feel  the  irksomeness 
of  letter- writing,  "I  am,"  he  says,  "the  least  epistolary  of 
men. ' '  He  felt  it  difficult  to  use  in  a  free  way  for  his  friends 
the  pen  that  was  habitually  employed  with  reflection  for  the 
public.  Almost  every  letter  of  Berthelot  utters  a  plaint 
over  his  friend's  silence.  Henriette  is  instigated  to  coerce 
her  recalcitrant  brother  into  performing  his  duty  as  a  cor- 
respondent. Sometimes  Renan  is  penitent,  sometimes  apolo- 
getic, sometimes  refractory.  At  any  rate,  his  experiences  of 
this  period  are  reflected  in  his  books  rather  than  in  his 
correspondence. 

In  fact,  every  moment  was  occupied,  and  he  was  often  too 
exhausted  for  mental  effort  after  the  day's  work.  He  was 
busy  from  morning  to  night,  traveling,  planning,  supervis- 
ing. Four  campaigns,  Ruad,  Byblos,  Sidon,  and  Tyre,  were 
inaugurated  under  his  eye  and  then  continued  by  assistants, 
the  most  competent  of  whom  was  Dr.  Gaillardot.  All  sorts 
of  negotiations  had  to  be  undertaken  both  with  officials 
and  with  the  populace,  schemes  of  work  had  to  be  laid 
out,  unearthed  objects  viewed  and  classified,  larger  monu- 
ments carefully  studied  and  measured,  and  reports  pre- 
pared.^ Henriette  writes  that  both  she  and  her  brother 
were  of  unusual  strength  and  indeed  for  this  task  they 
needed  all  the  strength  with  which  they  were  endowed,  for 
she  too  accompanied  him  on  most  of  his  expeditions,  un- 
dergoing hardships  and  privations  beyond  the  endurance 


*A  detailed  account  of  his  trips,  with  dates,  will  be  found  in  the 
introduction  to  the  Mission  de  Phenicie.  A  brief  account  of  the 
whole  expedition  and  a  criticism  of  its  results,  is  given  in  The  Devel- 
opment of  Palestine  Exploration  by  Frederick  Jones  Bliss,  pp.  242-254. 

209 


ERNEST  RENAN 

of  most  women,  while  also  taking  care  of  the  accounts,  copy- 
ing and  arranging  the  records,  and  relieving  her  brother  of 
all  material  cares. 

And  she  was  happy,  he  tells  us,  though  sometimes  in  her 
letters  she  hobnobs  with  Berthelot  more  than  a  thousand 
miles  away  over  her  brother's  indifference.  "His  ambitions 
preoccupy  him  more  than  his  affections,"  she  complains 
(November  30).  "It  seems  he  can  do  everything  for  those 
he  loves  except  devote  time  to  them.  I  assure  you  I  do 
not  exaggerate  in  saying  that  during  our  two  stays  at  Beirut 
he  gave  more  time  to  the  General  and  the  Pasha  than  to 
his  old  friend  who  has  abandoned  everything  to  follow  him 
to  these  distant  shores.  Literally,  since  we  have  been  in 
Syria,  I  have  scarcely  seen  him,  and  when  I  do  see  him,  he 
is  so  absorbed  by  the  work  of  his  mission,  so  preoccupied 
with  what  it  has  already  given  him  or  what  it  promises, 
that  I  truly  do  not  know  if  he  is  aware  of  my  presence." 
And  again  she  writes  (February  11,  1861)  :  "I  cannot 
help  thinking  often  that  you  and  I  seek  in  him  one  who  is 
no  longer  there,  the  friend  whose  first  thought  we  were, 
whose  first  confidants,  and  in  whose  soul  we  were  accus- 
tomed to  read  without  witness  or  interpreter.  You  and  I  have 
remained  the  same,  while  he  is  completely  metamorphosed 
and  we  seek  to  seize  in  him  what  is  only  a  phantom  or  a 
recollection." 

Berthelot  had  been  expecting  to  join  the  party  in  Janu- 
ary, 1861,  but  he  was  detained  in  Paris,  at  first  by  his 
father's  infirmities  and  later  by  professional  engagements. 
In  every  letter  he  gives  news  of  "Baby,"  his  doings  and 
sayings,  his  measles  and  scarlatina,  his  need  of  his  father's 
personal  influence.  From  early  in  the  winter  Berthelot  im- 
portunately and  insistently  urges  an  early  return  to  France, 
partly  for  his  own  sake,  partly  for  the  sake  of  "Baby," 
but  above  all  on  the  grounds  of  the  peril  that  lurked  in 
the  summer  climate  of  Syria,  a  warning  that  was  unfor- 

210 


SYRIA 

tunately  not  heeded.  His  marriage  in  May  brought  a  new 
intimate  friend  into  the  Renan  circle,  for  though  his  wife 
had  not  been  previously  acquainted  with  the  Syrian  trav- 
elers, she  at  once,  in  spite  of  distance,  was  adopted  as  one 
of  them  and  with  her  Henriette  began  a  cordial  corre- 
spondence. "We  shall  make  a  nice  little  coterie  (taking 
the  word  in  its  good  sense),"  writes  Berthelot  (May  31, 
1861). 

In  December,  1860,  Mme.  Renan  joined  her  husband  at 
Beirut,  leaving  "Baby"  to  grandmother,  cousins  and 
aunts.  Having  taken  the  trip  to  Palestine,  she  returned 
to  Paris  in  July,  1861,  thus  escaping  the  fatal  fever.  Lock- 
roy,  who  made  drawings  for  the  expedition,  says  that  Hen- 
riette suffered  when  the  wife  arrived.  There  was  a  sort 
of  rivalry  between  the  two  in  taking  care  of  the  common 
object  of  their  affection,  tying  his  necktie  and  seeing  that 
he  was  properly  dressed.  R«nan,  on  his  part,  was  so  ab- 
sorbed in  his  work  that  he  paid  no  attention  to  the  ladies, 
and  probably  had  no  idea  which  of  them  had  done  his 
tie  or  attended  to  his.  wants. 

He  was,  Lockroy  reports,  like  a  child  in  the  hands  of 
his  sister,  who  looked  after  him,  laid  down  the  law  to  him 
and  scolded  him.  He  would  then  humbly  excuse  himself 
and  beg  her  pardon.  "The  most  seductive  man  I  have 
known,"  is  this  observer's  verdict.  Already  with  a  ten- 
dency to  fat,  which  was  at  this  time  only  a  tendency,  he  had 
a  large  nose,  small  eyes,  an  ironical  mouth,  and  the  manners 
of  a  priest,  When  people  talked,  he  sat  thinking  of  other 
things,  and  when  the  talk  ceased,  he  would  exclaim:  "Ah! 
how  true  that  is!"^ 

In  April  and  May  the  Renans  spent  thirty-four  days  on 
a  trip  to  Jerusalem,  visiting  all  the  places  associated  with 
the  career  of  Christ.     Even  if  the  l^endary  topography 

'Sdouard  Lockroy,  Au  hasard  de  la  vie. 

211 


ERNEST  RENAN 

were  false,  he  felt,  in  pointing  out  any  precise  spot,  the 
error  was  at  most  only  a  matter  of  a  few  yards ;  and  there 
unmistakably  were  Bethany,  the  Mount  of  Olives,  Geth- 
semane,  and  the  road  from  Galilee,  the  very  road  trodden 
by  the  feet  of  Jesus.  By  June  1,  the  party  was  back  in 
Beirut.  The  mission  was  ended  by  the  withdrawal  of  the 
French  troops.  The  essential  work  was  finished,  though  Re- 
nan  ardently  desired  to  return  to  Umm-el- 'Awamid ;  what 
remained  was  to  close  up  the  affairs,  group  results,  ship 
bome  tons  of  antiquities,  and  visit  some  of  the  high  parts 
of  Lebanon,  where  relief  could  be  found  from  the  deadly 
heat  of  the  plains.  A  new  campaign  of  excavations  in 
Cyprus  was  also  in  prospect  for  the  autumn.  Meanwhile, 
during  the  month  of  July,  spent  at  Ghazir,  Renan  set  eagerly 
to  work  on  a  book. 

I  have  employed  my  long  days  at  Ghazir  [he  writes  Berthelot 
(September  12)]  in  composing  my  Life  of  Jesus,  as  I  conceived 
it  in  Galilee  and  in  the  land  of  Tyre.  In  a  week  it  will  be  finished ; 
I  have  only  the  story  of  his  last  two  days  left  to  write.  I  have 
succeeded  in  giving  all  this  an  organic  continuity  which  is  com- 
pletely lacking  in  the  Gospels.  I  truly  believe  that  the  reader 
will  have  before  his  eyes  living  beings,  and  not  those  pale,  lifeless 
phantoms  of  Jesus,  Mary,  Peter,  etc.,  which  have  passed  into  the 
state  of  abstractions  and  mere  types.  As  in  the  vibration  of 
sonorous  discs,  I  have  tried  to  give  the  stroke  that  arranges  all 
the  grains  of  sand  in  natural  waves.  Have  I  succeeded?  You 
will  judge.  But  I  ask  you  not  to  say  a  word  about  it  outside 
our  little  circle.  This  big  piece  in  my  portfolio  makes  up  my 
whole  force.  The  wind  must  not  be  taken  out  of  it.  It  will  come 
forth  in  its  proper  time.  Now  that  it  is  done,  I  have  come  to 
care  little  for  the  College  de  France  and  all  the  world.  If  I  am 
allowed  to  publish  it  (and  I  cannot  be  refused),  that  will  be 
enough  for  me. 

The  prudent  Berthelot  is  eager  to  read  the  new  book,  but 
advises  delay  in  publication,  thinking  that  there  will  be 
enough  to  do  in  arranging  the  collections  and  giving  out 
the  results  of  the  expedition  (September  26). 

212 


SYEIA 

Ghazir,  Renan  says,  is  one  of  the  most  beautiful  spots  in 
the  world,  surrounded  by  wooded  valleys  and  grassy  slopes. 
Here  he  and  Henriette,  who  had  suffered  terribly  from  the 
hardships  and  fatigues  of  exploration,  rested  happily  while 
her  Arabian  mare  and  his  mule,  Sada,  "our  poor  traveling 
companions,"  found  pasture  close  by  their  little  house. 

I  resolved  [says  Renan]*  to  write  out  all  the  ideas  that,  since 
my  sojourn  in  Tyre  and  my  trip  to  Palestine,  were  germinating 
in  my  mind  about  the  life  of  Jesus.  When  reading  the  Gospels 
in  Galilee,  the  personality  of  the  great  founder  had  vividly  im- 
pressed me.  In  the  midst  of  the  deepest  conceivable  peace,  I  wrote, 
with  the  sole  aid  of  the  Gospels  and  Josephus,  a  Life  of  Jesus, 
which  at  Ghazir  I  carried  forward  up  to  the  last  journey  of  Jesus 
to  Jerusalem.  Delicious  hours,  and  too  soon  vanished;  oh,  may 
eternity  be  like  you !  From  morning  to  evening  I  was  intoxicated 
with  the  ideas  that  unrolled  before  me.  With  them  I  went  to 
sleep,  and  the  fii*st  rays  of  the  sun  behind  the  mountain  gave 
them  back  to  me  clearer  and  more  vivid  than  the  evening  before. 
As  fast  as  I  wrote  a  page,  Henriette  copied  it.  "This  book,"  she 
said,  "I  shall  love."  .  .  .  Her  joy  was  complete,  and  these  mo- 
ments were  without  doubt  the  sweetest  of  her  life.  Our  intel- 
lectual and  moral  communion  had  never  been  so  intimate. 

Early  in  September  the  needs  of  his  mission  called  Re- 
nan  to  Beirut,  and  the  two  left  Ghazir  '  *  not  without  tears, ' ' 
On  September  15,  they  went  to  Amschit,  where  he  had  to 
supervise  the  shipment  of  two  large  sarcophagi.  She  was 
indisposed,  but  they  still  worked  on  the  Life  of  Jesus  until 
her  illness  forbade  further  effort;  then  he  too  was  seized 
with  fever  and,  though  still  active,  went  about  in  a  sort  of 
trance.  Unable  to  secure  proper  medical  treatment,  Hen- 
rietta -died,  September  24,  while  her  brother  was  semicon- 
scious and  delirious.  Two  days  elapsed  before  he  could 
realize  his  loss.     The  funeral  was  attended  to  by  Dr.  Gail- 


*S(Bwr  Henriette,  pp.  60,  61. 

213 


ERNEST  RENAN 

lardot,  and  Henriette  found  her  resting  place  in  a  native 
tomb  near  a  pretty  chapel  amid  the  palms." 

Leaving  Beirut  October  10,  1861,  Renan  reached  Paris 
on  the  24th,  still  suffering  from  the  effects  of  his  fever, 
which  probably,  as  Grant  Duff  surmises,  laid  the  foundation 
of  his  later  maladies.  "Gloomy  as  an  owl,"  Taine  found 
him  in  February.  During  his  absence  two  long  reports  ad- 
dressed to  the  Emperor  had  been  published  in  the  Moniteur, 
the  third  and  last  report  appearing  after  his  return."  It  is 
a  curious  fact  that  these  reports,  addressed  to  the  Emperor 
in  the  respectful  terms  demanded  by  court  etiquette,  fur- 
nished the  basis  of  opposition  to  Renan  by  the  irrecon- 
cilable radicals,  who  thus  strangely  found  themselves  allied 
with  the  clericals.  Letters  from  him  to  the  Emperor  and 
to  colleagues  were  also  read  before  the  Academy  of  In- 
scriptions.^ The  material  and  often  the  wording  of  these 
official  reports  are  reproduced  in  his  immense  Mission  de 
Phenicie,  the  publication  of  which  in  parts  was  begun  in 
March,  1865,  and  completed  ten  years  later.  Even  in  these 
archaeological  notices  his  style  is  vigorous  and  often  charm- 
ing. A  letter  read  by  Maury  on  July  12,  1861,  which  tells 
of  numerous  rock  carvings  of  the  Emperor  Hadrian's  name, 
adds  the  remark:  "They  are,  I  think,  the  visiting  cards 
of  this  traveling  Caesar. ' '  ^ 

In  one  interesting  episode  Renan  showed  himself  decidedly 

•All  the  details  are  given  in  ScBur  Henriette. 

•Keport  dated  Amschit,  January  30,  1861,  in  Moniteur,  February 
25  and  27;  report  dated  Beirut,  June  28,  in  Moniteur,  July  8  and 
11;  and  report  dated  Paris,  January  20,  1862,  in  Moniteur,  February 
21,  22,  26.  A  final  instalment  was  announced  but  not  published.  Tha 
first  of  these  documents  also  was  printed  in  the  Debats  July  15  and 
16  and  the  Journal  de  I' Instruction  publique  July  17  and  20  and  the 
Bevue  archiologique,  first  report  March,  1861;  second  report  July, 
1861;  third,  March,  April,  May,  1862.  AU  are  given  in  full,  though 
they  occupied  a  disproportionate  amount  of  space  and  crowded  out 
other  matter. 

*See  Comptes  rendus,  vol.  v. 

■  Comptes  rendus,  vol.  v,  p.  177. 

214  .  . 


CHAIR  OF  HEBREW 

bellicose.  Some  inscriptions  previously  found  and  offered 
for  sale  were  refused  him,  the  owner  having  been  scared 
by  the  threats  of  a  little  group  of  fanatics.  Renan  pro- 
posed to  take  them  by  force,  though  not  without  paying 
even  more  than  their  value,  but  the  commander  of  his 
naval  boat,  the  Colbert,  was  not  willing  to  lend  a  hand  in 
the  marauding  expedition  suggested  by  the  gentle  scholar.® 
The  objects  were  finally  obtained,  though  we  are  not  told 
how." 

n 

During  the  period  extending  from  the  return  to  Paris  to 
the  "War  of  1870,  we  shall  not  be  occupied  as  heretofore 
with  an  examination  of  the  growth  or  modification  of  Re- 
nan's  thought  or  style — for  there  was  none  of  any  serious 
import — but  with  the  vicissitudes  of  his  public  career  and 
the  progress  of  his  life  work. 

The  first  episode  of  this  nature,  an  episode  that  made 
a  great  stir  at  the  time,  was  his  appointment  to  the  Chair 
of  Hebrew  in  the  College  de  France.  Upon  this  chair  he 
had  fixed  his  eyes  in  the  earliest  days  of  his  career  as  a 
scholar,  and  for  it  he  had  prepared  himself  with  the  most 
arduous  toil.  On  the  death  of  Quatremere  in  1857,  he  had 
made  the  customary  visits  to  the  members  of  the  Academy 
and  the  Faculty  of  the  College  to  solicit  their  support,  but 
the  Minister  of  Public  Instruction,  instead  of  calling  for  the 
usual  presentations,  had  designated  a  substitute  {charge  de 
cours)  to  carry  on  the  instruction  without  the  professorial 
title.  While  Renan  was  in  Syria,  the  minister,  sharing  the 
general   feeling  that  so   distinguished  a  scholar  could  no 

*Il)id.,  vol.  V,  p.  97. 

"  In  the  Report  to  the  Emperor  published  in  the  Moniteur,  February 
21,  space  is  given  to  this  affair  at  Ruad.  An  armed  cruiser  that  ac- 
companied the  workmen  changed  the  disposition  of  the  people  on  the 
island  to  such  au  extent  that  the  excavators  were  encumbered  with  too 
much  assistance. 

215 


ERNEST  RENAN 

longer  be  kept  in  the  inferior  position  he  then  filled  at  the 
Bibliotheque  Imperiale,  made  certain  advances,  to  which 
Renan  replied  that  he  could  accept  no  place  but  the  pro- 
fessorship of  Hebrew.^^ 

Finally,  on  December  13,  1861,  the  minister  invited  the 
Academy  of  Inscriptions  to  propose  two  candidates  for 
the  chair  of  Quatremere,  at  the  same  time  indicating  a 
change  of  title  from  Hebrew,  Chaldaic  and  Syrian  Languages 
to  Semitic  Languages.  This  change  Renan  and  others  op- 
posed, and  it  was  not  effected.  On  December  20,  the  Acad- 
emy designated  as  its  first  choice  Renan  and  as  its  second 
Latouche.  Renan  was  also  the  first  choice  of  the  Faculty 
of  the  College  de  France,  and  his  nomination  by  the  min- 
ister became  almost  an  obligation.  On  Sunday,  January 
12,  1862,  the  Imperial  Decree  naming  Renan  Professor  of 
the  Hebrew,  Chaldaic  and  Syrian  Languages  in  the  Col- 
lege de  France  was  published  in  the  Maniteur.  It  was  pre- 
ceded by  a  report  to  the  Emperor  by  Rouland,  Minister  of 
Public  Instruction  and  Worship,  a  report  obviously  addressed 
quite  as  much  to  Renan  and  to  the  public  as  to  his  Imperial 
Highness.  It  is  at  once  a  defense  of  the  appointment  and 
a  warning  to  the  appointee.  The  form,  indeed,  had  been 
prepared  by  Renan  himself,  but  the  minister  had  cut  out 
that  part  of  the  draft  which  expressly  reserved  "the  right 
to  treat  freely  from  the  standpoint  of  the  historian,  literary 
man,  philologist  and  scholar,  all  religious  questions  brought 
up  by  the  subject  of  the  course,"  a  fact  stated  in  Renan 's 
letter  to  the  ConstitiUionnel  dated  February  28  and  pub- 
lished March  2,  1862.  This  omission  changed  the  entire 
implication  of  the  report. 

The  books  [it  says]  that  furnish  the  texts  for  the  lessons  of 
the  professor  are  largely  holy  books.    Our  religion  finds  in  them 

"On  December  29,  1860,  Eenan  had  been  made  Chevalier  de  la 
Legion  d'Honneur. 

216 


CHAIR  OF  HEBREW 

its  origins  and  also  its  prayers  and  its  inspiration.  It  is  for  this 
reason  that,  in  faculties  of  theology,  the  study  of  the  Hebrew 
tongue  includes  traditional  and  dogmatic  explanations  which  are 
the  source  of  the  received  beliefs  of  every  Christian  communion. 
But  it  is  evident  that  discussions  of  this  kind  ought  not  to  take 
place  in  the  College  de  France,  whose  chair  of  Hebrew  is,  if  I 
may  so  speak,  entirely  lay.  There,  the  professor,  like  all  citizens, 
should  maintain  the  reserve  and  respect  due  to  the  sacred  character 
of  the  Bible;  he  leaves  to  the  theologian  the  field  that  belongs  to 
him,  and  he  occupies  himself  exclusively  with  literary  and  philologi- 
cal research.  Keeping  free  from  religious  polemic,  he  should  give 
himself  wholly  to  investigations  useful  to  the  understanding  and 
the  progress  of  the  important  science  of  comparative  Semitic  lan- 
guages. 

Prudence  would  have  counseled  Renan,  as  his  friends  did, 
to  heed  the  warning  and  to  begin  his  course  in  a  small  room 
with  his  half-dozen  pupils  without  the  usual  public  inaugural 
lecture.  He  had  attained  the  chief  ambition  of  his  life,  and 
why  should  he  sacrifice  it  by  arousing  public  clamor?  ^^  He 
was,  however,  unwilling  thus  to  sneak  into  his  chair.  As 
the  champion  of  historical  and  philological  science,  he  must 
enter  upon  his  labors  with  all  the  customary  ceremonies. 
Among  the  writers  for  the  Debats,  to  mention  no  others, 
Saint-Marc  Girardin,  Baudrillart,  Franck  and  others  an- 
nounced, delivered  and  published  inaugural  lectures.  To 
open  a  course  without  one,  simply  because  the  situation  was 
dangerous  to  face,  would  have  been  a  cowardly  slinking 
away  on  Renan 's  part  and  a  triumph  for  his  opponents.  He 
announced  his  discourse  for  Saturday,  February  22,^^  and  all 
Paris  prepared  for  an  interesting  occasion. 

Bersot,  writing  to  his  family  under  date  of  February  23, 
says:^*    "I  went  yesterday  to  the  inaugural  lecture  of  Re- 

"  On  January  28,  he  wrote  to  Michele  Amari :  *  *  In  any  case,  I  shall 
face  the  storm.  I  shall  give  my  first  lecture  without  any  reserve  and 
with  full  publicity."     Michele  Amari,  Carteggio,  ii,  p.  155. 

"It  was  really  given  February  22,  though  the  date  in  MSUmgea  ia 
February  21. 

'■*  Bersot  et  ses  amis,  p.  180. 

217 


ERNEST  RENAN 

nan's  course.  It  was  uncertain  how  he  would  be  received. 
The  young  men  like  him  as  a  man  of  talent  and  a  free- 
thinker in  religion;  but  he  had  accepted  the  Syrian  Mission 
from  the  Emperor,  and  they  waited  till  the  last  moment  to 
consult  their  leaders  in  order  to  know  whether  to  hiss  or 
applaud.  In  the  end,  for  fear  of  being  confused  with  the 
clericals,  as  in  the  About  affair,^®  they  applauded  furi- 
ously. .  .  ,  Renan  said  some  of  the  strongest  things  ever 
spoken  in  a  professor's  chair.  In  the  tumultuous  court, 
Bersot  carried  a  policeman  on  his  back." 
Taine  's  account  is  as  follows  :^" 

The  Liberal  students  went  to  ask  M.  Despois  whether  they  should 
hiss;  the  Catholics  to  ask  M.  Laprade."  There  was  a  group  that 
hissed,  but  those  who  applauded  were  in  an  overwhelming  majority.' 
When  the  torrent  poured  in,  the  crowd  at  the  door  was  so  violent 
that  it  tore  down  a  lamp;  the  police  had  to  clear  the  yard  by 
force;  I  saw  one  man  with  a  bloody  head. 

For  three-quarters  of  an  hour,  there  was  a  storm  of  vociferations, 
savage  howls  and  laughter.  "Long  live  Quinet,  Michelet,  Prevost- 
Paradol,  Laprade!  Long  live  Gueroult!  Down  with  Gueroult! 
Down  with  the  Jesuits!"  Renan  enters;  all  rise;  there  is  a  thunder 
of  cheers,  howls,  waving  of  hats,  a  few  hisses;  then  a  louder 
thunder  of  applause;  for  twenty  minutes  he  cannot  say  a  word. 
He  attempts  by  futile  gestures  to  obtain  silence.  His  gestures 
are  a  bit  like  those  of  a  bishop  (a  bishop  in  partibus  infidelium), 
and   so   are   certain   phrases   of  his  lecture.     It   is   published  in 

"  About 's  Gaetana  had  on  January  2,  1862,  been  hooted  off  the  stage 
at  the  Odeon  by  a  combination  of  liberals  and  clericals,  the  liberals 
objecting  to  his  complaisance  to  authority  and  the  clericals  to  his 
writings  on  the  affair  of  Rome.  About  the  same  time,  a  bitter  personal, 
as  well  as  clerical  and  anticlerical,  quarrel  ensued  between  Augier  and 
Laprade.  Laprade  published  in  the  Correspondant,  "La  Chasse  aux 
vaincus,"  a  malignant  attack  in  verse,  and  Augier  answered  in  kind 
in  I' Opinion  nationale  in  prose.  Both  pieces  are  printed  together — 
with  regret — in  the  Debats  for  January  2  and  3,  1863. 

"  Vie  et  correspondance,  ii,  pp.  227,  228. 

"Both  Despois  and  Laprade  had  been  dismissed  from  their  chairs; 
the  first  for  refusing  to  take  the  oath  in  1852,  and  the  second  for  his 
poem,  "Les  Muses  d'l&tat, "  in  1861.  In  Laprade 's  case  the  Minister 
had  spoken  even  more  brutally  about  pay  and  obligations  than  was 
done  at  Benan's  dismissal. 

218 


CHAIR  OF  HEBREW 

the  Debats.  He  always  talks  as  though  pronouncing  a  benediction. 
His  lecture  (on  what  the  Semites  have  done  for  general  civiliza- 
tion) is  extremely  good.  Bold  passages  about  Christianity  and  the 
Pope.  The  students  applauded  like  readers  of  the  Steele,  coarsely. 
After  the  lecture,  an  enormous  column  under  umbrellas  goes  to 
cheer  him  at  rue  Madame. 

Renan  was  not  there,  but  his  aged  mother,  proud  of  any 
honor  paid  to  her  son,  showed  herself  to  the  crowd,  accom- 
panied by  the  faithful  Professor  Egger,  and  accepted  their 
tumultuous  plaudits. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  there  is  in  the  celebrated  address 
nothing  that  Renan  had  not  said  more  emphatically  in  his 
published  writings.  It  was  indeed  little  more  than  a  con- 
densation of  his  views  on  general  history  and  the  Semitic 
character.  The  lecture  is  two-thirds  over  before  he  says 
a  word  about  what  all  had  come  to  hear.  "We  owe  the 
Semites  neither  our  political  life,  nor  our  art,  nor  our  poe- 
try, nor  our  philosophy,  nor  our  science.  What,  then,  do  we 
owe  them?  We  owe  them  our  religion."  In  another  five 
minutes  comes  the  famous  sentence: 

An  incomparable  man — so  great  that,  although  in  this  place 
everything  must  be  judged  from  the  standpoint  of  positive  sci- 
ence, I  would  not  contradict  those  who,  struck  by  the  exceptional 
character  of  his  work,  call  him  God — brought  about  a  reform  of 
Judaism  so  profound,  so  individual,  that  it  was  truly  a  complete 
creation.  Having  reached  the  highest  religious  stage  that  ever 
man  had  attained,  regarding  God  in  the  relation  of  a  son  to  a 
father,  devoted  to  his  work  with  total  oblivion  of  all  else,  and 
with  an  abnegation  never  practiced  in  so  lofty  a  spirit,  victim 
finally  of  his  idea  and  deified  by  his  death,  Jesus  founded  the 
eternal  religion  of  humanity,  the  religion  of  the  spirit,  disengaged 
from  all  priesthood,  from  all  forms  of  worship,  from  all  observ- 
ances, accessible  to  every  caste,  in  a  word,  absolute.  "Woman, 
the  time  is  come  when  they  will  adore  neither  on  this  mountain 
nor  in  Jerusalem,  but  where  the  true  worshipers  adore  in  spirit 
and  in  truth."  " 

"Melanges  d'JUstovre  et  de  voyages,  p.  18.    Cf.    Avenir,  p.  474. 

219 


ERNEST  RENAN 

Among  the  strong  things  that  Bersot  speaks  of  is  perhaps 
the  following:  "As  I  shall  bring  into  my  teaching  no  dog- 
matism, as  I  shall  limit  myself  always  to  an  appeal  to  your 
reason,  setting  before  you  what  I  consider  most  probable 
and  leaving  you  perfect  liberty  of  judgment,  who  can  com- 
plain ?  Only  those  who  believe  themselves  to  have  a  monop- 
oly of  the  truth.  But  they,  indeed,  must  relinquish  their 
position  of  masters  of  the  world.  In  our  days,  Galileo 
would  not  kneel  to  beg  pardon  for  having  discovered  the 
truth. "  ^*  Or  it  may  be  such  a  remark  as  this :  ' '  David 
became  king  by  the  weapons  of  an  energetic  condoUiere, 
yet  this  did  not  hinder  him  from  being  a  very  religious  man, 
a  king  according  to  God 's  own  heart. ' '  ^° 

The  conclusion  presents,  with  little  modification,  the  reli- 
gious ideas  of  The  Future  of  Science.  "Our  religion  will 
become  less  and  less  Jewish;  more  and  more  it  will  reject 
political  organization  applied  to  things  of  the  spirit.  It 
will  become  the  religion  of  the  heart,  the  inward  poetry  of 
each.  .  .  .  We  shall  pursue  the  nuance,  seeking  delicacy  in- 
stead of  dogmatism,  the  relative  instead  of  the  absolute." 
Will  science  repay  our  sacrifice?  The  speaker  cannot  tell, 
but  he  is  sure  that  we  shall  have  done  our  duty.  If  truth 
is  sad,  we  shall  at  least  have  deserved  a  better  consolation. 
History  shows  that  there  is  in  human  nature  a  transcenden- 
tal instinct,  and  the  development  of  humanity  is  inexplicable 
on  the  hypothesis  of  a  finite  destiny  in  which  virtue  is  but 
refined  egotism  and  religion  a  chimera.  In  spite  of  the 
author  of  Ecclesiastes,  science  is  not  the  worst,  but  the  best 
occupation  given  to  the  sons  of  men.  If  all  is  vanity,  we 
are  no  more  dupes  than  others.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  ' '  the 
true  and  the  good  are  really  something,  as  we  feel  assured 
they  are,  then  without  contradiction  he  who  seeks  and  loves 
them  has  followed  the  best  inspiration." 

"  Ihid.,  pp.  4,  5. 
»J6id.,  p.  11. 

220 


CHAIR  OF  HEBREW 

After  this  conclusion,  Renan  added  a  few  words  called 
forth  by  the  demonstration  that  had  accompanied  his  ad- 
dress. In  the  next  lesson  he  will  plunge  into  Hebrew  phi- 
lology. The  vivacity  of  his  young  auditors,  praiseworthy 
in  principle,  should  not  be  allowed  to  degenerate  into  frivo- 
lous agitation.  "Turn  to  solid  studies,"  he  says;  "believe 
that  what  is  liberal  in  the  highest  degree  is  culture  of  mind, 
nobility  of  heart,  independence  of  judgment.  Prepare  for 
our  land  a  generation  ripe  for  everything  that  makes  the 
glory  and  the  ornament  of  life.  Beware  of  thoughtless  en- 
thusiasm, and  remember  that  liberty  is  won  only  by  seri- 
ousness, by  respect  for  ourself  and  for  others,  by  devotion 
to  the  public  good  and  to  the  special  task  that  each  of  us 
in  this  world  is  called  upon  either  to  found  or  to  con- 
tinue."" 

The  lecture,  as  published  in  the  Dehats  (February  25), 
was  introduced  by  Prevost-Paradol,  who  maintains  that  Re- 
nan  had  won  a  complete  victory,  having  had  more  trouble 
from  the  enthusiasm  of  approbation  than  from  marks  of 
disapproval.  On  February  26,  in  announcing  that  Levy 
would  bring  out  the  discourse  on  the  following  day,  the 
Dehats  published  the  prefatory  note,  in  which,  after  thank- 
ing his  auditors  for  their  kindness,  Renan  expresses  the 
opinion  that  those  who  interrupt  a  thoughtful  address  which 
they  have  not  been  obliged  to  attend  commit  an  illiberal  act 
by  imposing  their  opinion  and  suppressing  the  opinion  of 
others  by  violence.  In  order  that  the  public  should  not  be 
deceived  by  the  inaugural  discourse,  he  further  indicates 
that  all  future  lessons  will  be  entirely  technical. 

It  is  little  wonder  that  Bersot  wrote,  February  25 :  "  All 
goes  well  for  you,  and  I  am  delighted.  Your  lecture  is  fine 
and  decisive  for  the  liberty  of  science."  Indeed,  according 
to  the  standards  of  the  time,  the  occasion  had  been  a  success, 

«/6«f.,  pp.  24,  25. 

221 


ERNEST  RENAN 

and  Renan's  moderation  was  generally  recognized.  A  con- 
siderable number  of  professors  had,  during  the  preceding 
quarter  of  a  century,  been  prevented  by  turbuleoit  students 
from  giving  their  courses,  among  them  Renan's  friend, 
Sainte-Beuve,  in  1855,  nor  did  the  practice  cease.  A  little 
over  a  year  later,  Viollet-le-Duc  was  driven  from  his  chair 
at  the  Eeole  des  Beaux- Arts  by  a  volley  of  pototes  ^^  and 
Taine,  who  replaced  him  with  success,  was  received  with  a 
noisy  demonstration  that,  as  in  Renan's  case,  followed  him 
through  the  streets  to  his  home.  Adolphe  Franck,  too,  in 
1863,  when  speaking  of  de  Maistre  and  de  Bonald,  encoun- 
tered a  row  raised  by  their  clerical  defenders,  which  was 
suppressed  by  a  counter-demonstration.^^  But  in  compari- 
son with  the  affair  of  the  professorship  of  Hebrew,  these 
were  as  ripples  by  the  side  of  ocean  billows.  Jules  Simon 
testifies  that  the  celebrated  phrase  was  pronounced  simply 
and  naturally  and  furthermore  that  Renan  never  sought 
effects  or  did  anything  for  notoriety.  ' '  The  third  day, ' '  says 
the  victim,  "certain  persons,  who  ought  to  be  well  enough 
satisfied  with  their  privileges  not  to  be  jealous  of  the  lib- 
erty accorded  to  others,  caused  me  to  be  forbidden  to 
speak, ' '  2*  The  course  was  suspended  by  imperial  order  on 
February  26,  before  a  single  lesson  in  Hebrew  could  be 
given,  the  grounds  of  the  suspension  being  that  "M.  Renan 
has  expounded  doctrines  injurious  to  Christian  belief,  and 
which  may  lead  to  regrettable  agitations. ' '  ^^ 

The  debate  was  continued  in  the  press  during  the  earlj'' 
days  of  March,  the  Constitutionnel  accusing  the  professor 
of  bad  faith,  a  charge  against  which  he  vigorously  defended 

"As  Viollet-le-Duc  left  the  hall,  he  was  accompanied  by  a  hostile 
crowd  of  noisy,  singing  students.  Theophile  Gautier,  who  attempted 
to  make  a  speech  to  them  in  favor  of  his  friend,  was  arrested  by  the 
police  who  dispersed  the  mob.  Maxime  du  Camp,  Souvenirs  litteraires, 
vol.  ii,  p.  240. 

^Dihats,  January  27,  1863. 

^Questions  contemporaines,  p.  ix. 

*^Dibats,  February  28,  1862. 

222 


CHAIR  OF  HEBREW 

himself,  though  not  to  the  satisfaction  of  his  accusers.*' 
Scholarship  was  almost  unanimously  in  favor  of  the  pro- 
fessor. Its  judgment  may  be  fairly  represented  by  the 
following  passage  from  the  Bevue  archeologique  (March, 
1862)  :  "M.  Ernest  Renan  began,  Saturday,  the  22nd,  his 
course  at  the  College  de  France.  There  was  a  large  audience. 
It  was  feared  that  this  was  in  part  hostile.  Some  malevolent 
feelings  were,  indeed,  shown  at  the  beginning  of  the  lecture, 
but  they  soon  gave  place  to  displays  of  approbation  under 
the  influence  of  the  lofty  and  calm  language  of  the  professor. 
This  first  lecture  was  for  M,  Renan  a  real  success,  which 
will  please  every  friend  of  science." 

Renan 's  feeling  in  the  matter  is  well  represented  in  a  letter 
to  Grant  Duff." 

For  my  part,  I  do  not  feel  wounded.  I  shall  reopen  in  a  few 
weeks;  the  course  is  therefore  not  threatened.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  human  species  is  so  silly  that  those  who  govern  it  must  be 
permitted  to  make  concessions  to  its  foolishness.  The  most  that 
can  be  asked  of  the  present  government  is  that  it  should  be  in- 
consequent. The  suspension  was  ordered  on  account  of  the  recla- 
mations of  certain  cardinals,  which  were  almost  threatening,  and 
after  most  insistent  efforts  with  the  Empress  by  several  bishops. 
The  coincidence  of  the  discussions  in  the  Senate,  of  the  speech  of 
Prince  Napoleon,  of  the  Roman  affair  and  of  a  certain  agitation 
among  the  youth  was  of  still  more  decisive  weight.  The  Emperor 
is  the  one  I  most  willingly  pardon.  His  position  amid  the  heated 
passions  that  tear  the  country  is  most  diflScult.  Each  act  in  the 
liberal  direction  recoils  on  him  as  a  fault.  In  naming  me  in  spite 
of  the  active  opposition  of  the  Catholic  party,  he  performed  an 
act  almost  courageous.  As  he  did  nothing  but  confirm  the  nomi- 
nation made  by  the  College  de  France  and  the  Institut,  it  was 
certainly  a  liberal  act.  No  other  government  in  France  would 
have  done  it.     If  the  concession  just  made  in  the  opposite  direc- 

**See  Debats  March  1  and  2,  and  Constitutionnel,  February  28  and 
March  2  and  3.  These  latter  articles  are  signed  by  Paulin  Limayrac 
and  P.  de  Troimonts.  In  a  quotation  from  le  Siecle  and  a  nameless 
sheet  published  in  the  Latin  Quarter  it  is  said  that  ' '  not  all  the  hisses 
came  from  Catholics." 

"  March  10,  1862,  Memoir,  pp.  66,  67. 

223 


ERNEST  RENAN 

tion  can  aid  in  bringing  about  a  liberal  solution  of  the  Roman' 
affair,  I  shall  very  willingly  forget. 

Early  in  May  Renan  went  to  Dordrecht,  Holland,  to  be 
present  at  the  inau^ration  of  the  statue  of  Ary  Scheffer, 
erected  in  his  birthplace.  The  celebrated  museum  of  oriental 
antiquities,  as  well  as  the  distinguished  body  of  profes- 
sors, tempted  him  then  to  visit  Leyden,  and  here,  at  the 
home  of  Professor  Kuenen,  a  delegation  of  about  thirty 
students  of  theology  through  one  of  their  number  chosen 
for  the  occasion  greeted  him  in  the  name  of  the  university 
as  the  champion  of  liberty  in  the  realm  of  historical  and 
religious  studies.  Renan,  in  his  reply,  expressed  his  deep 
appreciation  of  the  spontaneous  and  wholly  unexpected  dem- 
onstration, and  urged  the  distinction  between  religion  itself 
and  the  supernatural,  the  one  eternal,  the  other  dying  out 
through  the  spread  of  scientific  and  historical  investigation. 
The  incident  was  indeed  gratifying  in  view  of  the  organized 
opposition  in  Paris.^^ 

In  order  to  state  his  side  of  the  case,  Renan  published 
on  July  15  a  pamphlet  addressed  to  his  colleagues  at  the 
College  de  France,^®  which  ran  through  five  editions  before 
the  end  of  the  year.  An  equal  popular  demand  greeted  the 
inaugural  lecture  in  pamphlet  form.  Instead  of  being  sup- 
pressed, Renan  actually  addressed  a  wider  audience  than 
any  that  could  have  crowded  into  any  amphitheater  in  ex- 
istence. The  whole  episode  is  a  glaring  instance  of  the  stu- 
pidity and  flabbiness  of  Napoleon's  government.    If  it  had 

"Correspondence  from  Holland,  le  Siecle,  May  17,  and  le  Temps, 
June  14,  1862.    See  Questions  contemporaines,  p.  220. 

"La  Chaire  d'Hebreu  au  College  de  France,  explications  k  mes 
CoU^gues,  Michel  L6vy,  1862.  In  the  Debats  for  August  31,  Prevost- 
Paradol  published  the  last  division  of  this  pamphlet  with  an  introduc- 
tion in  which  he  summarizes  and  approves  the  main  points.  Renan 
corrects  one  view  of  Pr^vost-Paradol  in  a  letter  dated  July  31  and 
published  in  the  Debats  August  5  and  reprinted  in  Qv,estions  contem- 
poraines. 

234 


CHAIR  OF  HEBREW 

not  been  ready  to  meet  opposition,  it  should  never  have  made 
the  appointment,  for  opposition  was  certain  and  readily  to 
be  foreseen;  having  made  the  appointment,  it  should  un- 
doubtedly have  maintained  Renan  in  his  post. 

The  explanation  to  his  colleagues  is  much  more  methodi- 
cal than  Renan 's  other  writings.  He  has  been  reproached, 
he  says,  on  four  points:  (1)  Seeking  an  appointment  that 
was  bound  to  cause  trouble,  (2)  giving  an  inaugural  lecture, 
(3)  the  subject  of  the  lecture,  (4)  the  mode  of  treatment. 
Two  divisions  of  his  pamphlet  are  devoted  to  the  first  point : 
(1)  It  was  his  duty  as  a  scholar  to  seek  the  chair,  and  "those 
who  know  me  will  have  the  justice  to  admit  that  what  I 
have  once  conceived  as  a  duty,  I  do  not  abandon";  (2)  the 
chair  is  purely  scientific  and  philological.  The  third  divi- 
sion is  occupied  with  the  inaugural  lecture:  "If  I  had  re- 
linquished it,  a  special  circumstance  would  have  given  my 
renunciation  a  color  that  I  could  not  accept.  ...  If  the 
inaugural  lecture  had  not  been  an  established  usage,  I  should 
never  have  invented  it.  But,  since  the  custom  existed,  to 
relinquish  it  would  be  to  retreat  before  a  threat,  to  admit 
the  justice  of  those  who  maintained  that  I  dared  not  avow 
my  principles."  In  the  fourth  division,  he  shows  that  the 
terms  in  which  he  had  referred  to  Jesus  had  been  used  even 
by  Bossuet  and  that  the  theological  Faculty  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  Leyden,  by  a  spontaneous  manifestation,  had 
recognized  his  expression  as  truly  Christian.^"  In  the  last 
two  divisions  he  takes  up  the  mode  of  treatment,  maintaining 
that  he  spoke,  not  as  a  theologian  but  as  a  historian;  that 
it  is  a  fundamental  principle  of  science  that  there  is  no 
supernatural  event.  "For  science  a  supernatural  explana- 
tion is  neither  true  nor  false;  it  is  not  an  explanation."    To 

"Charles  Eitter  writes  August  6,  1862,  of  "an  address  of  M.  Renan 
to  the  Faculty  of  Theology  of  Leyden,  in  which  he  repeats  what  he 
has  80  often  said  about  the  necessity  of  separating  the  ever  triumphant 
cause  of  religion  from  the  lost  cause  of  miracles."  This  is  the  ad- 
dress noted  above. 

^25 


ERNEST  RENAN; 

separate  religion  from  the  supernatural,  he  continues,  is  not 
irreligious;  it  is  rather,  since  belief  in  the  supernatural  is 
disappearing  from  the  world,  to  render  religion  a  service. 
"Bubbles  of  a  moment  on  the  surface  of  the  ocean  of  being, 
we  feel  with  the  abyss,  our  father,  a  mysterious  affinity.  God 
does  not  reveal  himself  by  miracles,  but  in  the  heart. ' ' 

Renan  does  not  argue;  he  simply  states  his  case.^^  It  is 
obvious  that  his  appeal  for  liberty  and  for  a  purely  scien- 
tific attitude  toward  his  subject  must  fall  on  deaf  ears.  The 
differences  between  him  and  his  opponents  were  irreconcila- 
ble, and  both  he  and  they  were  inflexible. 

Still,  for  some  time,  Renan  in  his  guileless  way,  believed 
that  the  course  was  only  postponed,  not  finally  prohibited. 
He  even,  as  a  further  plea  for  the  neutrality  of  the  state 
in  intellectual  matters,  urged  the  appointment  of  Adolphe 
Regnier,  who  had  been  recommended  by  both  the  Academy 
and  the  College,  to  the  chair  of  Burnouf,  vacant  since  1852. 
As  Regnier  had  been  tutor  to  the  Comte  de  Paris,  he  would 
for  personal  reasons  refuse  to  take  the  oath  of  allegiance 
to  the  Empire;  but  should  a  mere  question  of  politics  in- 
terfere with  the  progress  of  Sanscrit  studies  ?  ^^  Regnier 
was  never  appointed.  He  was  first  choice  of  the  College  de 
France  for  the  new  chair  of  comparative  grammar,  which 
was  to  be  supported  out  of  the  appropriation  for  the  chair 
of  Hebrew,^^  but  the  Minister,  instead  of  asking  for  the 
necessary  nominations  from  the  Academy  of  Inscriptions, 
designated  the  second  choice  of  the  College,  Michel  Breal, 
as  charge  de  coiirs.    It  was  not  until  April,  1866,  that  a  can- 

"  The  sort  of  argument  involved  in  the  case  may  be  represented  by 
the  pamphlet,  "Du  discours  d'ouverture  de  M.  E.  Renan"  by  Francois 
Rene  Guettee,  a  widely  known  clerical  editor  and  historian,  who  dem- 
onstrates Renan 's  ignorance  of  history  and  science  by  the  fact  that  he 
does  not  know  that  all  mankind  is  descended  from  the  three  sons  of 
Noah. 

****Iia  Chaire  de  Sanscrit  au  College  de  France,"  Debats,  December 
10,  1862;  reprinted  in  Questions  contemporaines. 

*^J)ehat8,  June  13,  1864. 


CHAIR  OF  HEBREW 

didate  was  demanded  of  the  Academy,  and  then  Regnier,  in 
a  dignified  letter,  refused  to  stand,  on  the  ground  that,  as 
the  cJiarge  de  cours  was  admirably  fitted  for  the  post,  there 
was  no  question  of  scholarship  involved.  Breal,  translator 
of  Bopp,^*  and  already  noted  for  original  investigations, 
was  made  first  choice,  and  thereupon  appointed  by  the  Min- 
ister professor  of  comparative  grammar.  A  history  of  the 
educational  establishment  under  the  Empire  is  quite  as  in- 
structive as  that  of  political  events. 

As  early  as  March,  1863,  Renan  feels  insecure;  he  may 
be  dismissed,  in  which  case  he  is  ready  to  stand  for  election 
to  the  Corps  Legislatif  from  some  radical  Paris  district,  a 
duty,  yet  a  great  sacrifice,  for  his  heart  is  set  on  a  life  of 
free  and  peaceful  teaching.^^  "Do  not  think,"  he  writes 
Berthelot,  September  24,  "that  politics  attract  me;  I  swear 
in  all  sincerity  that  I  should  prefer  to  be  a  peaceable  pro- 
fessor with  ten  pupils,  making  my  books  at  leisure,  and 
having  some  day  as  my  supreme  ambition  to  become  the 
administrator  of  the  College. ' '  By  autumn  he  felt  that  some 
action  on  his  part  was  required,  All  his  friends  told  him 
that  a  renewal  of  his  Hebrew  course  was  hopeless.^^  The 
government  could  not  permit  the  rows  that  would  ensue. 
On  September  29,  he  wrote  to  Bersot :  "  I  am  going  to  give 
at  home  the  course  I  should  have  given  at  the  College  de 
France.  My  study  is  small,  but,  if  necessary,  I  will  hire 
another.  I  desire  that  no  one  in  need  of  such  teaching 
should  be  deprived  of  it.  I  believe,  besides,  that  it  is  good 
to  make  the  experiment  for  the  sake  of  the  general  freedom 
of  teaching."  In  the  Journal  Asiaiique,  November-Decem- 
ber, 1863,  appeared  a  notice  signed  J.  M.  (Mohl)  to  the 
effect  that  Renan  offers  a  course  in  Hebrew  to  a  limited 
number  of  pupUs  at  his  home   and  that  he  proposes  to 

"See  long  notice  by  Eenan  in  Debats,  May  3,  1866. 
"  Carteggio  di  Michele  Amari,  voL  ii,  p.  163. 
"  Berthelot,  September  3,  1863. 

227 


ERNEST  RENAN 

do  this  as  long  as  he  cannot  give  it  in  public  at  the  College 
de  France. 

The  whole  procedure,  though  Renan  found  precedent  for 
it  in  the  sixteenth  century  and  in  Burnouf  s  action  in  1848, 
was  utterly  irregular,  and  Victor  Duruy,  the  new  minister 
of  public  instruction,  sought  to  end  it,  for,  though  to  a 
large  extent  liberal,  he  wanted  order.  During  the  summer 
Taschereau,  head  of  the  library,  had  offered  Renan  a  place 
as  keeper  in  the  department  of  manuscripts  at  7,000  francs, 
which  was  more  than  the  professorial  salary,  but  Renan 
had  declined,  because  as  the  law  forbade  holding  a  position 
in  the  library  and  at  the  College  at  the  same  time,  to  accept 
would  imply  his  resignation  of  the  chair  of  Hebrew.^^  At 
length  an  expedient  presented  itself  to  the  minister  on  the 
death  of  Hase,  who  had  held  three  positions,  keeper  of  manu- 
scripts at  the  Bibliotheque  Imperiale,  professor  of  com- 
parative grammar  at  the  Sorbonne,  and  professor  of  mod- 
ern Greek  and  Greek  paleography  at  the  School  of  Living 
Oriental  Languages.  Duruy,  in  his  report  to  the  Emperor, 
dated  June  1,  1864,  proposed  several  changes,  obviously  in 
order  that  the  transfer  of  Renan  might  be  disguised  as  part 
of  a  general  scheme.  First,  paleography  was  dropped  from 
its  association  with  modern  Greek;  then  the  chair  of  com- 
parative grammar  was  transferred  from  the  Sorbonne  to 
the  College  de  France  as  the  more  appropriate  institution. 
To  effectuate  this  transfer,  since  there  were  no  appropria- 
tions in  the  budget,  he  suggested  using  provisionally  the 
funds  voted  for  the  chair  of  Hebrew,  Chaldaic  and  Syrian 
languages,  a  chair  not  occupied  for  two  years.  "  It  is  against 
the  interests  of  the  service  and  the  proper  expenditure  of 
public  funds,  as  well  as  the  dignity  of  the  distinguished 
scholar  forced  to  submit  to  this  anomaly,  that  pajTnent 
should  be  received  when  the  functions  are  not  performed." 

"To  Berthelot,  September  8,  1863. 

228 


CHAIR  OF  HEBREW 

Renan  had  come  from  the  library  with  the  title  of  honorary 
librarian:  he  might  now  return  as  keeper  and  subdirector 
in  the  department  of  manuscripts,  "where  his  special  learn- 
ing will  allow  him  to  render  real  service  to  the  public. ' '  ^® 
This  whole  clumsy  report, — clumsy  especially  in  its  in- 
sistent reference  to  money — together  with  the  imperial  de- 
crees, putting  its  recommendations  in  force,  appeared  in 
the  Moniteur  for  June  2.  Duruy  apparently  wanted  to  get 
out  of  an  embarrassing  situation  in  the  easiest  available  way, 
but  he  merely  succeeded  in  irritating  Renan  to  the  utmost. 
On  the  spur  of  the  moment  and  burning  with  an  indignation 
which  he  made  no  attempt  to  restrain,  the  transferred  pro- 
fessor wrote  the  minister  an  open  letter,  in  which  even 
the  friendly  Debais  found  one  expression  "a  little  too  viva- 
cious. ' '  He  flatly  refused  the  library  appointment  and  flatly 
refused  to  resign  his  chair,  for  he  considered  this  particular 
task  his  scientific  and  moral  duty.  Since  he  had  been  as- 
sured that  he  could  not  reopen  his  course,  he  had  given 

"The  chronology  of  the  controversy  in  the  Debats  is  as  follows: 
June  2,  a  note  by  L.  Alloury  reserving  judgment,  and  in  another 
column,  Duruy 's  report;  June  4,  Kenan's  letter  with  the  statement 
that  "M,  Benan  begs  us  to  reproduce  the  following  letter  that  he  has 
just  sent  to  the  Minister  of  Public  Instruction;  June  5,  editorial  com- 
ment signed  "The  Secretary  of  the  Editorial  Board,  F.  Camus;  June 
6,  a  note  questioning  the  legality  of  the  call  just  issued  for  nominations 
to  the  newly  established  chair  of  comparative  grammar  at  the  College 
de  France,  to  which  the  appropriation  of  the  chair  of  Hebrew  had  been 
diverted;  June  10,  a  long  editorial  by  Edouard  Laboulaye  attacking 
the  legality  of  Duruy 's  action.  On  June  11,  Le  Constitutionnel  refutes 
Laboulaye  "s  argument  (signed  L.  Boniface)  on  the  grounds  that  the 
decree  of  July  11,  1863,  applied  only  to  the  University,  of  which  the 
College  de  France  was  plainly  not  a  part,  an  argument  for  strict  con- 
struction as  opposed  to  an  interpretation  of  the  spirit  of  the  decree. 
If  Kenan's  friends  object  to  Duruy 's  indirect  method  and  are  so 
strangely  eager  for  an  explicit  dismissal,  "we  see  no  reason  why  they 
should  not  receive  this  satisfaction. ' '  After  the  dismissal,  on  June  17, 
Paulin  Limayrac  editorially  maintains  that  Kenan's  discharge  has 
nothing  to  do  with  liberty  of  conscience.  In  a  contemptible  tone  of 
journalistic  superiority,  he  defends  the  government  and  belittles  Renan 
as  a  man  "not  suflBciently  master  of  himself  for  a  public  teacher," 
and  as  not  earning  his  pay.  All  these  articles  in  both  journals  occupy 
a  prominent  place  on  the  first  page. 

229 


ERNEST  RENAN 

instruction  at  his  home.  He  still  holds  the  professorial  title 
and  he  will  continue  to  teach  without  pay.  It  is  the  harping 
on  money  that  chiefly  arouses  his  wrath.  '  *  Science  measures 
merits  by  the  results  obtained,  not  by  the  more  or  less  punc- 
tual performance  of  any  regulations,  and,  if  you  ever  re- 
proach a  scholar  who  has  done  his  country  some  honor  with 
not  earning  the  petty  sum  allowed  him  by  the  state,  believe 
me,  Mr.  Minister,  he  will  answer  you  as  I  do,  and  following 
an  illustrious  example;  Pecunia  tua  tecum  sit/' 

"Thy  money  perish  with  thee,"  is  the  English  version 
of  Acts,  viii.  20.  Kenan's  Latin,  with  the  omission  of  in 
perditioTwm,  is  the  sort  of  parliamentary  language  that 
actually  sharpens  the  sting  by  innuendo.  What  in  plain 
English  is  merely  a  gross  vulgarism — *  *  Go  to  Hell  with  your 
money!" — ^becomes  amazingly  effective  when  expressed  in 
Biblical  Latin.  Moreover,  the  implication  of  the  passage 
referred  to — Simon  trying  to  buy  the  gift  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  with  silver — fits  the  case  in  hand  to  perfection  and 
adds  enormously  to  the  effect.  The  occasion  and  the  act 
were  unique  in  Renan's  career.  This  was  his  one  blow  de- 
livered without  premeditation  or  remorse  straight  in  the 
face  of  his  opponent.  Holding  the  cause  in  question  sacred, 
he  never  retracted  or  apologized  or  even  softened  the  vivacity 
of  his  abusive  citation.  On  June  12,  the  Moniteur  published 
the  decree  revoking  both  appointments.^^  This  was  an  act 
of  arbitrary  power,  highly  displeasing  to  the  liberals,*"  and 

"England  was  no  less  illiberal  than  France.  Mrs.  Ward  went  to 
Oxford  in  1865,  at  which  time  Jowett's  "salary  as  Greek  Professor, 
due  him  from  the  revenues  of  Christ  Church,  and  withheld  from  him  on 
theological  grounds  for  years,  had  only  just  been  wrung — at  last — 
from  the  reluctant  hands  of  a  governing  body  which  contained  Canon 
Liddon  and  Doctor  Pusey. "  A  Writer's  Becollectioiis,  vol.  i,  p.  136,  by 
Mrs.  Humphry  Ward.  Taine  found  Jowett's  liberalism  "akin  to 
Eenan's" — Letter  of  May  27,  1871 — Correspondance,  vol.  iii,  p.  133. 

*°  One  imperial  reason  reads :  "In  view  of  the  decree  of  March  9, 
1852,  ordaining  that  the  Emperor  names  and  dismisses  professors  at 
the  College  de  France, ' '  thus  going  back  to  the  oppressive  days  of  the 
Coup  D'ltat  and  disregarding  in  spirit  the  liberal  decree  of  July  11, 

230 


LIFE  OF  JESUS 

the  results  could  not  have  been  thoroughly  satisfactory  even 
to  the  clericals.  When  candidates  were  asked  for  in  Decem- 
ber, the  blind  Salomon  Munk,  a  prominent  Jewish  scholar,*^ 
was  presented  by  Faculty  and  Academy,  and  he  received 
the  appointment  the  next  June  in  spite  of  Duruy's  scruples 
about  ha\'ing  three  Jewish  professors  in  the  College.  Renan 
published  the  documents  in  a  pamphlet,  The  Dismissal  of 
a  Professor  at  the  College  de  France,  to  which  he  gave  per- 
manence in  his  QiiestioTis  contemporaines  (1868),  and 
though  expelled  from  his  chair,  he  remained  master  of  the 
field. 

ni 

In  this  whole  affair,  the  greatest  scandal  to  Kenan's  op- 
ponents was  the  publication  of  the  Life  of  Jesus  on  June  24, 
1863.  Though  certainly  not  so  intended,  it  seemed  like  a 
gage  of  defiance  designed  to  insult  and  irritate.  That  Renan 
had  such  a  work  in  hand  was  no  secret.  Taine,  who  saw 
much  of  him  at  Chalif er,  writes : 

He  read  me  a  long  piece  of  his  Life  of  Jesus.  He  constructs 
this  life  delicately  but  arbitrarily;  the  documents  are  too  much 
altered,  too  uncertain.  For  the  period  of  Nazareth,  he  puts  to- 
gether all  the  gentle  and  agreeable  ideas  of  Jesus,  removes  all 
the  gloomy  ones,  and  makes  a  charming  mystical  pastoral.  Then,  in 
another  chapter,  he  gathers  every  threat,  every  bitterness,  and 
attaches  these  to  the  journey  to  Jenisalem.  In  vain  Berthelot? 
and  I  told  him  that  this  is  putting  a  romance  in  place  of  a  legend; 
that,  by  a  mixture  of  hypotheses,  he  spoils  those  parts  that  are 
certain;  that  the  clerical  party  will  triumph  and  pierce  him  in 
the  weak  spot,  etc.     He  will  hear  nothing,  see  nothing  but  his 

1863,  by  which  professors  of  the  University  could  be  dismissed  only 
after  a  hearing. 

**  Grant  Dufif  says  that  Eenan  placed  Munk  highest  among  the  Jew- 
ish scholars  of  France.  Memoir,  p.  50.  He  was  not,  however,  a  native 
Frenchman,  having  been  born  in  Silesia.  His  oriental  studies  begim  at 
Bonn  were  completed  in  Paris  and  he  became,  like  Mohl,  a  naturalized 
citizen. 

231 


ERNEST  RENAN 

idea,  tells  us  that  we  are  not  artists,  that  a  simply  positive  and 
dogmatic  treatise  would  not  reproduce  the  life  that  Jesus  lived 
and  must  be  made  to  live  again,  that  he  does  not  care  if  people 
howl,  etc.,  etc.    Lack  of  prudence  and  caution.** 

Hints  had  even  come  to  the  general  public,  Sainte-Beuve 
had  heard  the  substance  of  the  work  and  let  the  readers 
of  the  Constitutionnel  into  his  confidence  in  1862,  and  on 
the  verge  of  publication,  in  reviewing  Dupanloup's  Avertisse- 
ment  a  la  jeunesse  et  aux  pcres  de  famille  sur  les  atiaques 
dirigees  contre  la  religion  par  quelques  ecrivains  de  nos 
jours,  an  attack  on  Littre,  Maury,  Renan,  and  Taine,  Bersot 
suggests  that,  instead  of  paying  any  attention  to  these 
charges,  Maury  had  better  continue  to  busy  himself  with 
erudition,  Taine  with  his  History  of  English  Literature, 
Littre  with  his  dictionary,  and  Renan  with  the  correction  of 
the  proofs  of  his  Life  of  Jesv^s.*^  Even  a  distinguished  for- 
eigner like  Senior  noted  (May  1)  the  substance  of  several 
long  conversations  held  during  the  previous  ten  days  with 
Renan  on  the  subject  of  his  unpublished,  though  already 
printed  work,  Histoire  critique  des  origines  du  Chris- 
tianisnie.** 

*'  Taine,  Vie  et  oorrespondance,  vol.  iii,  p.  245. 

*' Debats,  April  27,  1863.  Dupanloup's  pamphlet  consisted  of  a 
collection  of  citations  from  articles  and  books  by  the  four  writers. 
Bersot  objects  that  to  present  such  passages  out  of  their  context  is 
unfair  and  that  the  appearance  of  the  tract  on  the  eve  of  the  vote  on 
Littr§'s  candidacy  for  the  Academy  was  an  act  of  bad  faith  and 
against  liberty  of  conscience.  The  following  passage  is  quoted:  "I 
will  strip  their  works  and  tear  away  all  their  disguises.  I  wish  to 
place  them  under  the  necessity  of  either  denying  my  charges  by  aJSarm- 
ing  that  they  believe  in  God,  the  soul,  immortality  and  religion,  or  of 
accepting  publicly  the  title  of  atheists  and  materialists  from  which 
they  shrink. "  (P.  9.)  Dupanloup  had  been  a  member  of  the  Academy 
since  1854,  This  time  he  was  successful  in  defeating  Littr6,  and  in 
1871,  when  Littr6  was  finally  elected,  he  resigned  from  the  Academy, 
though  his  resignation  could  not  be  accepted  and  no  successor  was 
chosen  till  after  his  death  in  1878.  He  did  not  live  to  see  his  two 
other  abominations,  Renan  and  Taine,  take  their  academic  seats. 

"N.  W,  Senior,  Conversations  with  Distinguished  Perso7is  during 
the  Second  Empire. 

232 


LIFE  OF  JESUS 

The  advance  notice  in  the  Dehats  was  written  by  the 
sturdy,  but  liberal-minded  Jansenist,  de  Sacy,*'  and  per- 
haps no  fairer  estimate  of  the  work  has  been  published.  Out 
of  the  four  Gospels  and  his  own  conjectures,  Renan  con- 
structs, for  this  first  volume  of  his  Origins  of  Christianity,  a 
sort  of  fifth  Gospel,  from  which,  to  de  Sacy's  regret,  miracles 
are  absent.  It  is  the  "fruit  of  long  labor  and  great  in- 
ward agitations."  The  writer  "seeks  to  conciliate  the  most 
exalted  mysticism  with  the  most  hardy  skepticism,  the  rigor 
of  historical  method  with  a  transcendental  imagination." 
The  book  is  full  of  interest;  the  things  have  been  actually 
seen,  but  de  Sacy  prefers  the  simplicity  of  the  old 
Evangelists,  "I  believe  in  the  Gospels  of  Matthew,  Mark, 
Luke,  and  John;  I  do  not  believe  in  the  Gospel  of  M.  Re- 
nan.  ' '  The  remainder  of  the  notice  consists  of  an  argument 
for  liberty  of  criticism.*® 

The  review  in  the  Dehats  (August  28,  1863)  was  written 
by  Bersot,  who  undertook  the  ticklish  task  unwillingly  and 
against  the  advice  of  friends.  He  was  not,  indeed,  a  spe- 
cialist in  biblical  studies.  Thus  the  greater  part  of  the 
article  is  taken  up  with  a  discussion  of  eighteenth-century 
skepticism  as  contrasted  with  the  modern  critical  method. 
He  imagines  how  the  book  might  have  been  otherwise  done, 
is  surprised  at  the  idea  of  a  trick  in  the  Raising  of  Lazarus, 
and  realizes  that  the  portrayal  of  Jesus  as  a  delicate,  charm- 
ing young  man,  will  wound,  though  not  purposely.  Jesus 
always  hangs  between  science  and  art,  and  Renan,  much  in 
the  manner  of  Ary  Scheffer,  has  painted  his  picture.  To 
this  R^nan  privately  answers,  when  thanking  Bersot  for 
his  review:*^    "I  assure  you  that  I  wrote  the  book  with  a 

**L6\'y  feared  that  the  edition  might  be  seized  by  the  government. 
Benan  therefore  requested  de  Sacy,  Sainte-Beuve,  and  other  liberal 
journalists  to  say  that  in  their  opinion  such  things  had  a  right  to  be 
printed.     See  letter  to  Bersot  August  28,  1863. 

**  Dibats,  June  24,  1863,  the  date  of  publication. 

♦*  August  28,  1863 ;  Bersot  et  ses  amis,  p.  188. 

233 


ERNEST  RENAN 

sentiment  far  superior  to  petty  vanity.  ...  I  do  not  believe 
that  this  way  of  trying  to  reconstruct  the  original  physi- 
ognomies of  the  past  is  so  arbitrary  as  you  seem  to  believe. 
I  have  not  seen  the  personage;  I  have  not  seen  his  photo- 
graph ;  but  we  have  a  multitude  of  descriptive  details  about 
him.  To  try  to  group  these  into  something  living  is  not 
as  arbitrary  as  the  entirely  ideal  procedure  of  Raphael  or 
Titian." 

The  Catholic  party  greeted  the  book  with  howls  of  rage 
and  with  calumnies  for  which  Renan  thought  he  had  a  right 
to  bring  legal  action  for  slander.*^  The  most  innocent  of 
these  tales  was  that  Rothschild  had  subsidized  him  with  a 
million  francs.  The  most  virulent  of  the  printed  libels  was 
a  pamphlet,  Benan  en  famille*^  a  series  of  pretended  let- 
ters between  Renan  and  a  supposed  Sister  Ursule,  intro- 
duced, with  the  obvious  intention  of  inflicting  as  much 
pain  as  possible,  by  a  letter  from  the  spirit  of  Henriette, 
in  which  she  is  made  to  say :  ' '  Blot  out  my  name  at  once 
from  that  book,  which  is  as  badly  written  and  heavy  as  it 
is  abominable,  and  from  that  preface  with  its  grotesque  pre- 
tentiousness and  its  pitiable  French."  It  is  reported  that 
the  guests  in  a  hotel  at  Dinard  threatened  to  leave  if  Renan 
were  allowed  to  remain  there,  and  certainly  a  local  newspa- 
per published  some  malignant  verses,  beginning,  "Breton, 
no!  Jew  sprung  from  the  blood  of  Judas  Iscariot,  what 
have  you  come  here  for?"  Even  Jasmin  published  an  of- 
fensive poem  °°  in  which  ' '  he  left  his  sphere  and  forced  his 

**Anti-  and  pro-Renan  biographies  were  written,  Carfort  and  Ba- 
zonge,  Biographie  de  Ernest  Benan,  Paris,  1863,  a  pamphlet  of  about 
a  hundred  pages,  dated  December  10,  1863;  E,  Le  Peltier,  Vie  de  E. 
Benan,  Paris,  1864,  a  pamphlet  of  thirty-one  pages,  dated  October  10, 
1863.  Referring  to  the  preceding  brochure,  Peltier  says  that,  having 
learned  that  two  fanatics  in  Brittany  were  falsifying  Renan 's  biog- 
raphy, he  had  hastened  to  write  his  defense  first.  Neither  is  of  any 
value. 

*»  By  Ch.  de  Bussy,  Paris,  1866, 

"Lou  poSto  del  puple  h,  mossu  Renan,  Agen,  Aofit,  1864. 

234 


LIFE  OF  JESUS 

rustic  pipe."  ^^  And  the  feeling  did  not  soon  abate.  Taine 
tells  with  great  glee  the  story  of  a  young  mistress  of  Plon- 
Plon,  who  complained  bitterly  that,  on  the  trip  to  Norway 
in  1870,  she  had  to  sit  at  table  with  such  an  impious  rene- 
gade." Renan  remained  also  a  popular  subject  of  carica- 
tures, none  of  which  seem  to  have  been  very  brilliant. 

Such  was  not,  of  course,  the  attitude  of  opponents  of  ele- 
vated sentiments,  though  their  hostility  was  just  as  bitter. 
Cousin  called  the  book  an  atheistical  work.^^  Dupanloup 
and  Gratry,  among  many,  wrote  opposition  Lives  of  Jesus. 
The  Empress  with  strange  moderation  said  to  Mme.  Comu : 
* '  It  will  do  no  harm  to  those  who  believe  in  Christ ;  and  to 
those  who  do  not  it  will  do  good. ' '  '*  She  appreciated  Re- 
nan 's  purpose.  "No,  indeed,"  he  wrote  to  Saint e-Beuve,^'' 
**I  have  not  wished  to  separate  from  the  old  trunk  a  single 
soul  that  was  not  ripe. ' '  What,  on  the  other  hand,  the  repre- 
sentative pious  Catholic  felt  is  perhaps  best  expressed  in  a 
letter  written  to  Bersot  by  Montalembert  (June  16,  1863?) : 
* '  It  must  be  easy  for  you  to  fancy  what  a  Christian  has  to  suf- 
fer in  reading  the  Life  of  Jesus.  Imagine  what  you  your- 
self would  feel  if  your  father  were  treated  publicly  as  a 
charmivg  impostor.  Just  imagine  that  Jesus  Christ  is  for 
us  more  than  a  father,  that  he  is  our  God,  that  all  our  hopes 
and  aU  our  consolations  are  based  upon  his  divine  per- 
sonality, and  then  ask  yourself  if  there  could  be  for  our 
hearts  a  more  deadly  wound  than  that  here  given. ' '  ®' 


"  Sainte-Beuve,  Nouveaux  Lundis,  vol.  x,  p.  170. 

"Letter  of  August  31,  1870. 

"Letter  to  Bersot,  August  14,  1863. 

**  Grant  Duff,  p.  70.  Such  opposition  Lives,  written  to  counteract 
the  effect  of  Eenan's,  were  apparently  addressed  exclusively  to  the 
French  public.  I  cannot  find  that  they  have  been  translated.  The 
continued  popularity  of  Kenan's  work  contradicts  the  Abbe  Freppel's 
prediction  in  his  Examen  critique  that  ' '  no  one  would  talk  of  Benan  's 
book  in  three  or  four  months. ' ' 

NojPveaux  Lundis,  vol.  vi,  p.  15,  note. 


"Bersot  et  ses  amis,  p.  19. 


235 


EENEST  RENAN 

Renan  seems,  on  the  whole,  to  have  been  strangely  obtuse 
to  the  offensiveness  of  his  book  to  believers.  He  sent  copies 
with  an  affectionate  dedication  to  former  comrades  of  Saint- 
Sulpice,  some  of  them  already  bishops.'^  He  was,  indeed, 
so  engrossed  in  his  own  idea  that  he  could  not  sympathize 
with  the  opposite  view,  and  seems  to  have  felt  the  same 
naive  surprise  at  the  rumpus  over  his  Life  of  Jesus  as  he 
felt  at  the  Abbe  Cognat's  refusal  in  early  years  to  continue 
their  discussions  of  Christianity.^^  In  spite  of  all  warnings, 
he  went  directly  ahead,  convinced  that  what  he  was  doing 
was  what  needed  to  be  done. 

Meanwhile  the  book  sold  by  the  thousands,  and  during 
the  latter  half  of  '63,  Paris  talked  of  nothing  else.***  Renan 
did  not  utter  a  word  in  reply  to  attacks,  a  policy  he  had 
learned  from  the  wise  de  Sacy.  To  a  certain  extent  he  had 
become  insensible  to  abuse.  **By  character,"  he  writes 
Bersot,°°  "I  am  entirely  indifferent  to  such  things;  I  do 
not  believe  they  impede  the  progress  of  sane  ideas.  As 
for  my  book,  it  goes  the  better,  and  I  might  suspect  my 
publisher  of  inspiring  such  opposition.  Each  edition  of 
5,000  is  exhausted  in  eight  or  ten  days  and  a  letter  from 
Levy  just  received  tells  me  that  in  this  last  period,  the 
sale,  far  from  slowing  up,  even  goes  faster.  I  say  this  with- 
out vanity,  for  it  does  not  prove  the  book  either  good  or 
bad.  But  it  does  prove  that  the  means  employed  to  smother 
it  are  not  very  eflScacious."  By  November  60,000  copies 
had  been  sold,  and  translations  had  appeared  in  Dutch,  Ger- 

"  Jules  Simon,  Qiiatre  Portraits. 

"Kenan's  letters  to  Cognat  and  Cognat's  account  in  Benan  hier  et 
aujourd  'hui. 

"In  his  account  of  Kenan's  reception  at  the  Academy,  G.  Valbert 
tells  the  anecdote  of  a  lady  who,  after  having  devoured  the  Life  of 
Jesus,  said  with  a  sigh:  "I  am  so  disappointed  that  it  does  not  end 
in  a  marriage."  Revue  des  deux  Mondes,  April  15,  1879,  p.  941.  As 
there  are  other  similar  anecdotes,  e.  g.  of  the  English  lady  who  won- 
dered how  the  story  would  turn  out — it  is  obvious  that  they  are  all 
apocryphal,  a  mere  method  of  implying  romance.  » 

"August  28,  1863;  Bersot  et  ses  amis,  p.  189. 

236 


LIFE  OF  JESUS 

man  and  Italian.  The  popularity  of  the  most  celebrated 
novels  had,  as  Sainte-Beuve  remarks,  been  surpassed. 

Constructive  criticism  was  furnished  by  Scherer  in  the 
Temps  ^^  and  by  Havet  in  the  Revue  des  deux  Mondes 
(August  1).*^  Another  excellent  criticism  was  that  of  Al- 
bert Reville.®^  After  disposing  of  the  dogmatic  critics,  in- 
cluding deists,  Catholics  and  Protestants,  Reville  gives  his 
own  views,  concluding  that,  on  the  whole,  Renan  has  lessened 
rather  than  enlarged  Jesus.  The  two  main  objections  are 
Renan 's  confidence  in  the  Fourth  Gospel  and  his  treatment 
of  the  Raising  of  Lazarus,  which  puts  Jesus  in  the  position 
of  at  least  consenting  to  a  pious  fraud.^*  Both  of  these 
points  Renan  modified  in  the  thirteenth,  which  was  the  first 
revised,  edition,  the  Lazarus  story  being  there  regarded  as 
a  result  of  popular  confusion,  and  the  fourth  Gospel  being 
treated  not  as  emanating  from  St.  John,  but  as  still  con- 
taining incidents  transmitted  from  an  eyewitness  of  the 
crucifixion. 

So  far  as  the  year  1863  is  concerned,  the  whole  matter  is 
summed  up  in  Sainte-Beuve 's  masterly  Lundi  of  Septem- 
ber 7.^°  Writing  for  the  ComMitutionnel  and  wishing  to 
keep  on  good  terms  with  the  government,  Sainte-Beuve  was 
not,  as  he  confesses  to  Renan,®°  entirely  free,  yet  such  re- 

*^  Melanges  d'histoire  religieuse. 

"  Havet 's  article,  "L'fivangile  et  I'Histoire,"  gives  a  laudatory  ac- 
count of  Kenan's  book  with  a  few  reflections,  and  then  proceeds  to  the 
objections,  which  may  be  summed  up  in  the  general  statement  "that 
bia  criticism  in  detail  is  not  always  suflBciently  firm  and  severe. 
M.  Renan  knows  all  that  can  be  known,  and  no  one  has  anything  to 
teach  him  ...  he  voluntarily  refuses  to  follow  his  own  criticism  to 
the  end." 

"•  La  Vie  de  Jesus  de  M.  Ben<m,  1864,  a  reprint  from  the  Hevue 
germanique  et  frangaise. 

•*  These  are  also  among  the  main  objections  of  the  Strassburg  school, 
as  set  forth  by  Colani,  Examen  de  la  vie  de  J6sus  de  Renan,  1864. 

"  Nouveaux  Lvndis,  vi,  p.  1  et  seq.  Sainte-Beuve  also  republished 
from  the  Constitutionnel  his  note  recommending  the  book  on  the  day 
of  publication. 

"Letter  of  September  19,  Nounielle  Correspondance,  p.  183. 

237 


ERNEST  RENAN 

straint  as  he  felt  hindered  him  surprisingly  little  in  con- 
veying his  liberalism  and  his  sympathy.^^  Showing  utter 
contempt  for  the  corsairs  of  literature,  who  interrupt  a 
scandalous  tale  to  defend  the  divinity  of  Christ,  he  treats 
real  opponents  with  a  sort  of  respectful  irony.  These  are 
personified  in  three  objecting  friends,  a  Catholic,  a  free- 
thinker and  a  political  opportunist,  who  call  on  him  under 
the  pretext  of  asking  his  opinion,  but  really  to  express  their 
own,  which  is  "what  is  generally  done  when  one  goes  to  ask 
an  opinion."  "Feeble  and  foolhardy,"  "surrender  and 
concession,"  "dangerous  agitation,"  such  are  the  three 
judgments,  summing  up,  minus  the  abuse,  the  attitude  of 
the  unfriendly  press  and  public.  Sainte-Beuve  himself  ap- 
preciates thoroughly,  though  with  some  few  delicately  ex- 
pressed reserves,  the  artistic  qualities  of  the  book.  Renan 
is  not  content  to  destroy,  he  builds,  for  he  knows  that  noth- 
ing is  destroyed  until  something  is  put  in  its  place.  The 
Life,  addressed  to  the  public,  has  reached  its  address.  It 
is  a  narrative,  not  of  absolute  fact,  but  probable  and  plausi- 
ble, "not  very  far  from  the  truth."  Renan,  "to  be  his- 
torian and  story-teller  from  this  new  point  of  view,  had  to 
begin  by  being  above  all  a  diviner,^^  a  poet  drawing  in- 
spiration from  the  spirit  of  times  and  places,  a  painter  able 
to  read  the  lines  of  the  horizon,  the  least  vestiges  left  on 
the  slopes  of  the  hills,  and  skilled  in  evoking  the  genius  of 
the  region  and  the  landscape.  He  has  thus  succeeded  in  pro- 
ducing a  work  of  art  even  more  than  a  history,  and  this 
presupposes  on  the  part  of  the  author  a  union,  till  now 
almost  unique,  of  superior  qualities,  reflective,  delicate  and 
brilliant. "«» 

"Sainte-Beuve  was  a  valuable  asset  to  the  Constitutionnel.  His 
name  is  signed  to  his  articles  in  type  as  heavy  as  the  titles,  a  dis- 
tinction accorded  to  no  other  contributor. 

" In  an  essay  on  Ampere,  Sainte-Beuve  says,  "In  M.  Amp&re  you 
always  find  one  who  divines  beneath  him  who  knows." 

*Pp.  16,  17. 

238 


LIFE  OF  JESUS 

But  what  Sainte-Beuve  chiefly  praises  is  Kenan's  courage. 
It  is  true  the  author  did  not  have  to  flee  Paris,  as  Rous- 
seau had  done  a  hundred  years  before,  but  he  had  drawn 
upon  himself  a  strife  with  "a  notable  and  little  amiable 
portion  of  humanity  for  the  rest  of  his  life,"  enough  to 
intimidate  one  of  less  firmness.  "Those  of  us  who  have 
the  honor  of  M.  Kenan's  acquaintance  know  that  he  has 
strength  enough  to  face  the  situation.  He  will  show  neither 
irritation,  nor  bad  temper ;  he  will  remain  calm  and  patient, 
even  serene ;  he  will  retain  his  quiet  smile ;  he  will  preserve 
his  loftiness  by  never  answering.  He  will  vigorously  pursue 
his  work,  his  exposition  henceforth  more  solid,  more  his- 
torical and  scientific ;  no  cries  or  clamors  will  cause  him  to 
deviate  a  single  instant  from  his  aim. ' '  ^" 

Such  words  seem  bold  enough,  yet  Sainte-Beuve  wrote 
personally  to  Kenan:  "You  have  won  for  us  the  right  of 
discussion  on  this  matter,  hitherto  forbidden  to  all.  The 
dignity  of  your  language  and  of  your  thoughts  has  forced 
the  defenses,  "^^  and  again,  at  a  later  date,  when  thanking 
for  an  article  on  Port-Royal :  "I  place  my  intellectual  honor 
in  having  my  name  associated  with  yours  in  this  reform 
which  is  to  be  undertaken  at  the  present  period  of  the  cen- 
tury. I  have  come  too  late  and  am  about  to  finish.  You 
are  in  full  career,  and  you  can  long  endure  and  fight.  Your 
approval  gives  me  the  illusion  that  on  some  points  my 
thought  is  entwined  with  yours.  "^^  Whatever  may  be  the 
final  judgment  on  the  Life  of  Jesus,  it  was  a  resounding  and 
ultimately  triumphant  blow  for  intellectual  liberty  in  France. 

Kenan's  conception  is,  without  question,  imaginative,  but 
is  controlled  by  experience  and  learning.  He  does  not 
doubt;  he  affirms  positively  that  Jesus  was  entirely  human 
and  that  the  miracles  never  took  place.    Neither  materialistic 

"Page  20. 

"September  19,  1863,  Nouvelle  Correspondance,  p.  185, 

"November  17,  1867;  ibid.,  p.  246. 

239 


ERNEST  RENAN 

nor  mystical,  he  is  reverent,  enthusiastic,  original  and  in- 
dividual. His  own  experiences  in  the  East  give  an  ex- 
traordinary life  to  his  pictures  of  ancient  times.  "You 
could  not  believe,"  he  wrote  Berthelot  (November  9,  1860), 
"how  many  things  in  the  past  are  explained  when  one  has 
seen  all  this."  A  new  sentiment  enveloped  biblical  scenes 
and  personages.  With  Le  Genie  du  christianisme,  Chateau- 
briand had  swept  the  great  mass  of  half  indifferent  readers 
into  orthodoxy ;  but  now  his  direct  influence  was  spent,  and 
this  same  mass  was  aroused  and  moved  with  a  totally  dif- 
ferent result  by  the  Life  of  Jesus.  What  was  particularly 
irritating  to  the  clergy  was  the  fact  that  the  child  wonder 
of  Treguier,  who  had  been  expected  to  charm  the  worldly 
into  the  church  by  his  genius,  was,  instead,  leading  people 
into  paths  that  they  considered  the  paths  of  perdition.  And 
all  the  world  was  reading  and  discussing  the  abominable 
book.  The  leaders  sharpened  their  knives  for  the  victim. 
Renan  lost  his  professorship  in  the  College  de  France,  but 
he  became  one  of  the  most  celebrated  men  of  the  world. 
Henceforth,  not  a  word  he  uttered  was  spoken  unheard. 

Far  from  believing  that  he  was  doing  harm,  Renan  pro- 
ceeded to  publish  (March  4,  1864)  a  cheap  edition  for  the 
poor,  "the  true  disciples  of  Jesus,"  so  that  they  too  might 
come  to  love  the  Master  as  he  himself  loved  him,  not  as 
God,  but  as  a  man  overflowing  with  the  divine  spirit.  "The 
sweetness  of  this  unequaled  idyll"  would  be  a  consolation 
and  a  support  to  those  who  had  to  bear  heavy  burdens.''* 
He  indeed  believed  in  his  work.  It  was  to  be  an  antidote 
to  brutal  skepticism  and  arid  indifference.     As  he  says  in 

"This  edition,  the  title  of  which  is  simply  Jesiis  (Jisus  par  Ernest 
Benan,  1864,  in-18,  xii  and  262  pp.),  was  sold  for  one  franc  25  centimes. 
A  notice,  followed  by  the  introductory  essay,  was  published  in  the 
Debats  for  March  2.  Here  Kenan  omits  his  Introduction,  all  of  Chap- 
ter I  except  the  first  paragraph,  Chapters  xvi,  xix,  xxvi,  and  xxvii,  to- 
gether with  other  scattered  passages,  particularly  that  about  Lazarus 
and  much  of  the  last  chapter,  in  fact,  everything  that  might  give  rise 
to  misunderstandings. 

240 


LIFE  OF  JESUS 

his  dedication  to  the  pure  soul  of  his  sister  Henriette,  "If 
at  times  you  feared  for  it  the  narrow  judgment  of  the  friv- 
olous, you  were  yet  always  persuaded  that  truly  religious 
souls  would  in  the  end  find  it  good." 

Renan  read  all  the  serious  criticisms  of  his  work.  No 
insult  or  calumny  prevented  him  from  profiting  by  what 
was  urged.  "As  to  those,"  he  says,  "who  need  to  thinJi 
in  the  interest  of  their  belief,  that  I  am  ignorant,  light- 
headed, or  a  man  of  bad  faith,  I  shall  not  pretend  to  change 
their  idea.  If  such  an  opinion  is  necessary  to  the  repose  of 
any  pious  persons,  I  sliould  feel  a  real  scruple  about  dis- 
abusing their  minds."  The  thirteenth  edition  (1867)^*  is 
carefully  revised;  though  the  changes  are  not  so  extensive 
as  would  appear  from  the  differences  in  pagination,  which 
are  largely  a  matter  of  typesetting.  A  preface  and  appendix 
are  added,  there  are  slight  ameliorations  of  style,  and  many 
important  modifications  and  additions  to  the  notes.  The 
Lazarus  story,  in  particular,  is  so  altered  as  to  remove  any 
suspicion  of  connivance  in  trickery  on  the  part  of  Jesus,'"* 
and  the  Gospel  of  John  is  no  longer  treated  as  being  the 
direct  work  of  the  Apostle.'^'  No  evidence  that  was  pro- 
duced was,  however,  strong  enough  to  convince  Renan  that 
the  fourth  Gospel  did  not  contain  fragments  that  emanated 
from  an  eyewitness  of  the  crucifixion.  This  thirteenth  edi- 
tion is  the  final  form  of  the  Life  of  Jesus,  and,  whatever  the 
various  schools  may  think  of  it,  it  is  still  a  living  book.'^^ 

'*  This  edition  is  announced  in  the  DSbais,  September  1,  by  Bersot, 
who  notes  the  important  changes  and  quotes  the  preface,  almost  four 
columns  of  the  newspaper. 

"Ed.  1863,  pp.  359-364;  ed.  1867,  pp.  372-375.  The  criticism  of 
this  narrative  cannot  be  understood  by  those  who  have  read  only  the 
revised  edition. 

'•  In  the  text,  for  example,  *  *  John,  who  claims  to  have  seen ' '  becomes 
"The  fourth  evangelist,  who  here  introduces  the  Apostle  John  as  an 
eyewitness. ' ' 

"  An  illustrated  edition  with  a  new  preface — published  in  the 
Debats,  February  21 — was  brought  out  in  1870.  For  critical  remarks 
on  the  Li^e  of  Jesus,  see  the  chapter  on  The  Origins  of  Christianity. 

241 


ERNEST  RENAN 


IV 


During  this  period  of  public  turmoil,  Renan  pursued  his 
scholarly  labors  with  unremitting  diligence.  He  was  active 
in  the  Societe  Asiatique,  of  which  he  had  been  assistant  sec- 
retary to  Mohl  since  1860,  and  in  the  Academy  of  In- 
scriptions, where  he  read  philological  papers  and  served  on 
committees  to  award  prizes.  He  worked  also  on  his  vast 
account  of  his  Phoenician  mission  which  ran  to  nearly  900 
quarto  pages.  His  dissertation  on  "The  State  of  the  Fine 
Arts  in  France  in  the  Fourteenth  Century, ' '  which  had  been 
more  than  half  finished  before  he  went  to  Syria,  ^^  was  now 
completed  and  published  in  the  Histoire  litteraire  de  la 
FraTice,  vol.  xxiv.''^  Of  this  volume  the  first  600  pages  were 
occupied  by  the  dissertation  on  the  literature  of  the  period 
by  Victor  le  Clerc,  who  had  been  engaged  on  the  task  since 
1842.  Eenan  fills  150  pages  with  a  detailed  discussion  of 
churches,  castles,  bridges  and  other  edifices,  together  with 
a  review  of  sculpture,  painting  and  music,  all  associated  in 
characteristic  fashion  with  the  social  life  and  the  politics 
of  the  time.  Connected  with  this  work  was  his  later  study 
of  the  politics  of  Philip  the  Fair,  and  here  also  are  the  roots 
of  his  intimacy  with  Avignon,  shown  in  L'Eau  de  jouvence. 
Such  thoughts  as  were  most  fit  for  the  general  public  were 
attached  to  a  review  article  in  the  Revue  des  deux-  Mondes 
(July  1,  1862),  "The  Art  of  the  Middle  Ages  and  the 
Causes  of  Its  Decadence."®** 

"  Comptes  rendus,  vol.  v,  174. 

'•These  official  publications  were  unconscionably  delayed.  At  the 
Acadlmie  meeting  of  July  11,  1862,  the  secretary  states  that  the  volume 
is  in  press.  In  January,  1863,  he  states  that  it  has  been  printed  for 
several  months,  but  the  indexes  retard  publication.  A  bit  from  Le 
Clerc 's  dissertation  is  given  in  advance  in  the  Debats  for  March  6, 
1863.  The  quarto,  published  by  the  Inprimerie  Imperiale,  is  never- 
theless dated  1862;  the  octavo,  in  two  volumes,  was  published  by  Lfivy 
in  1865. 

*  While  the  article  is  a  review  of  the  Albwn  de  VUlord  de  Eonne- 

242 


SCHOLARLY  LABORS 

Just  about  this  time  (June  2  and  9,  1862),  Saints-Beuve 
devoted  to  Renan  two  Lundis  in  the  Constitutionnel.  These 
were  to  be  timely,  as,  when  preparing  them,  he  expected  the 
new  professor's  course  in  Hebrew  to  be  reopened  after 
Easter.^^  As  usual  the  great  critic  prepared  his  articles  very 
carefully,  getting  his  biographical  information  in  this  case 
from  the  subject  himself.  Renan,  however,  was  in  Holland 
when  his  friend  called  in  May,*^  but  he  afterwards  sent  some 
missing  publications  and  a  letter  giving  the  facts  of  his  life. 
In  thanking  him  for  this  letter  Sainte-Beuve  says :  "I  have 
lived  with  you,  and  I  believed  that  I  already  knew  you,  but 
you  have  kept  a  surprise  in  store  for  me.  It  was  a  critic  that 
I  observed  and  pursued,  the  most  delicate  and  attractive  of 
critics,  and  lo!  at  the  end  of  each  avenue,  I  find  an  artist. 
It  is  this  last  side  that  strikes  me  most  strongly  when  I  study 
you.  How  difficult  you  are  to  grasp.  What  should  be  done 
about  you  should  b3  a  dialogue  in  Plato's  manner;  but  who 
shall  do  it?"  (May  26).^*  The  idea  is  repeated  in  the  es- 
says, which  are,  as  one  should  expect,  and  even  after  all  the 
later  critics  have  had  their  say,  about  the  best  things  that 
have  been  written  concerning  Renan.  In  Taine's  contem- 
porary judgment,  they  are  not  frank,  their  aim  being  to 
bring  about  a  reopening  of  Renan 's  course  by  saying  what 
would  be  agreeable  to  the  Emperor;  but,  though  this  pur- 
pose is  almost  unconcealed,  particularly  in  the  second  arti- 
cle, it  is  not  pervasive  enough  to  injure  the  justice  of  either 

court,  this  publication  is  chiefly  an  excuse  for  Eenan's  own  opinions 
on  the  general  topics,  a  point  that  Viollet-le-Duc  emphasizes  in  Bevue 
archeologique,  February,  1863.  Of  this  nature,  in  fact,  are  most  of 
Renan 's  reviews.  He  writes,  for  example,  to  Berthelot  (September 
24,  1863)  that,  if  the  proposed  philosophical  letter  does  not  seem  fitting, 
he  will  "change  the  epistolary  form  and  tack  it  on  to  a  review  article 
dealing  with  Littre's  essay  on  Auguste  Comte." 

"Letter  of  April  8,  in  Nouvelle  Correspondance. 

"Ibid.,   May  5. 

**  Where  Sainte-Beuve  feared  to  tread  another  venturously  rushed  in. 
The  youthful  Maurice  Barrfes  unfortunately  imagined  himself  the 
destined.  Plato,  with  melancholy  results. 

243 


ERNEST  RENAN 

appreciation  or  dissent.  The  biographical  part  reads  as 
though  based  on  the  Becollections,  so  keen  is  the  critic's  in- 
sight. That  Renan  is  not  negative,  but  essentially  a  religious 
spirit,  that  for  the  supernatural  he  substitutes  the  divine,  that 
his  view  of  progress  toward  an  end  presupposes  God — such  an 
analysis  is  fundamental,  and  not  simply  addressed  to  Na- 
poleon III.  *  *  In  him  the  impression  is  sometimes  victorious 
over  the  idea  itself" — ^have  we  not  here  the  secret  key  to 
Renan  ?  Add  to  this  the  delicate  balance  of  critic  and  artist 
so  skillfully  traced  and  emphasized  by  Sainte-Beuve,  and  the 
reader  cannot  remain  greatly  puzzled  by  the  intricacies  of 
this  unusual  spirit,  a  spirit  that  is,  in  the  '60  's  as  in  the  '80  's, 
"learned,  profound,  delicate,  subtle,  proud  and  somewhat 
disdainful." 

On  September,  1862,  Renan  distributed  to  friends  a  slen- 
der volume,  Henriette  Benan,  memorial  for  those  who  knew 
her.^*  This  begins  and  ends  with  his  ideas  of  God  and 
Immortality : 

The  memory  of  man  is  but  an  imperceptible  stroke  in  the  trace 
that  each  of  us  leaves  in  the  bosom  of  the  infinite.  It  is  not, 
however,  vain.  The  consciousness  of  humanity  is  the  higher!,  known 
reflective  type  of  the  total  consciousness  of  the  universe.  The 
esteem  of  a  single  man  is  a  portion  of  absolute  justice.  Thus, 
although  a  beautiful  life  needs,  no  other  remembrance  than  that 
of  God,  the  attempt  has  always  been  made  to  perpetuate  its  image. 

But  God  does  not  suffer  his  saints  to  see  corruption.  0  heart, 
in  which  burned  unceasingly  so  sweet  a  flame  of  love ;  brain,  seat  of 
thoughts  so  pure;  charming  eyes  from  which  kindness  radiated; 
long,  delicate  hand  that  I  have  so  often  pressed,  I  shiver  with 
horror  when  I  think  that  you  are  dust.  But  all  here  below  is 
symbol  and  image  only.  The  truly  eternal  part  of  each  is  his 
relation  with  the  infinite.  It  is  in  God's  memory  that  man  is 
immortal.  It  is  there  that  our  Henriette,  forever  radiant,  forever 
faultless,  lives  with  a  thousand  times  more  reality  than  when  she 

"Paris,  Impr.  J.  Claye,  September,  1862,  in-16,  77  pp.  signed  Ernest 
Renan.  100  copies  printed.  The  work  was  first  published  as  Ma 
Soew  Henriette  in  1895,  and  then  with  the  Lettres  intimes  in  1896. 

244 


SCHOLARLY  LABORS 

struggled  with  her  weak  body  to  create  her  spiritual  personality, 
and,  thrown  in  the  midst  of  a  world  that  could  not  understand 
her,  obstinately  sought  perfection.  May  her  memory  remain  a 
precious  argument  in  favor  of  those  eternal  truths  which  each 
virtuous  life  helps  to  demonstrate.  For  my  part,  I  have  never 
doubted  the  reality  of  the  moral  order;  but  I  see  now  with  full 
evidence  that  the  whole  logic  of  the  system  of  the  universe  would 
be  overturned,  if  such  lives  were  but  dupery  and  illusion. 

The  brief  chapters  that  lie  between  contain  recollections 
of  early  days,  of  Henriette's  return  from  Poland,  their  life 
together,  the  anguish  caused  by  his  marriage,  and  then  the 
Syrian  trip  ending  in  her  death.  He  recalls  her  learning, 
her  taste  and  skill  in  composition,  her  appreciation  of  beauty 
in  art  and  nature,  her  simple  goodness,  her  self-sacrifice,  her 
retiring  disposition,  her  forcible  personality  and  her  pure 
and  lofty  soul.  The  little  book  is,  as  Jules  Simons  says,  a 
masterpiece.  Privately  printed  in  an  edition  of  one  hundred 
copies  for  intimate  friends,  it  was  not  published,  in  spite 
of  urgent  entreaties,  till  after  Kenan's  death.  He  felt  that 
to  put  his  appreciation  of  his  sister  in  a  book  to  be  sold 
would  be  like  sending  her  portrait  to  an  auction  room. 

To  the  year  1863  belongs  an  enlarged  and  revised  edition 
of  the  Histoire  general  des  langues  semitiques,  the  second 
volume  of  which  would  have  been  finished,  we  are  told,  but 
for  the  Phoenician  mission.  Renan  still  expects  to  complete 
the  work,  and  it  will  have  the  advantage  of  forming  part  of 
his  course  at  the  College  de  France,  since  one  of  his  two  hours 
will  be  devoted  to  this  topic.  Vain  hope.  In  the  meantime, 
he  expects  to  publish  a  separate  volume  of  Semitic  Studies, 
made  up  of  articles  that  had  appeared  in  the  Menwires  of  the 
Academy  of  Inscriptions,  the  Journal  Asiatique  and  other 
collections,  "but  long  developments  will  have  to  be  added." 
For  this  task,  however,  as  well  as  for  the  Dehats  and  the 
Bevue  des  deux  Mondes,  Renan  had  now  no  time,  his  whole 
energy  being  spent  on  the  Life  of  Jesus.    "Since  my  re- 

245 


ERNEST  RENAN 

turn,"  he  says,^"  "I  have  worked  incessantly  to  complete 
and  to  control  in  detail  the  sketch  that  I  had  hastily  written 
in  a  Maronite  cabin  with  five  or  six  volumes  about  me. ' '  All 
his  care  was  demanded  by  art  and  truth,  "two  inseparable 
things,  art  holding  the  secret  of  the  most  intimate  laws  of 
truth."  (P.  ix.)  Every  statement  was  weighed,  every  cita- 
tion verified,  and  the  expression  was  worked  over  again  and 
again  till  it  was  as  perfect  as  his  feeling  and  skill  could  make 
it. 

As  soon  as  the  book  was  published  revision  was  begun. 
In  August,  at  Dinard,  he  was  already  at  work  on  a  disserta- 
tion on  the  Gospel  of  St.  John.  As  a  relaxation — the  first 
of  those  literary  diversions  which  later  produced  such  mas- 
terly works  as  the  Recollections  and  the  Dramas — ^he  wrote 
during  the  summer  his  letter  to  Berthelot,  "The  Natural 
and  the  Historical  Sciences,"  published  in  the  Revue  des 
deux  Mondes  October  15.  On  November  15  appeared  Ber- 
thelot's  reply,  "Ideal  and  Positive  Science."  Both  essays*' 
are  highly  characteristic. 

Renan  puts  forth  one  of  his  favorite  ideas  (already  in 
Avemr  and  in  Herder),  that  the  aim  of  all  science  is  the 
history  of  the  universe,  from  the  atom,  the  molecule,  the 
formation  of  planets,  through  geologic  and  prehistoric  times 
to  authentic  human  history.  The  evolution  of  the  whole  is 
an  evolution  of  consciousness.  "There  is  an  obscure  con- 
sciousness of  the  universe  that  tends  to  produce  itself,  a  se- 
cret force  that  urges  the  possible  to  exist. "  (P.  178.)  ' '  There 
will  come  something  that  will  be  to  present  consciousness 
what  present  consciousness  is  to  the  atom."  (P.  183.)  The 
full  development  will  be  God,  for  in  one  sense  God  is  syn- 
onymous with  total  existence,  which  is  becoming.  In  an- 
other sense  God  is  the  absolute,  the  ideal,  the  living  principle 
of  the  good,  the  true  and  the  beautiful,  eternal  and  change- 

*•  Introduction,  p.  xcix. 

"Republished  much  later  in  Dialogues  et  fragments  phUosopMquea. 

246 


SCHOLARLY  LABORS 

less.    In  this  absolute,  in  the  idea,  we  shall  all  live  forever. 

Berthelot,  in  contrast,  is  definite  and  methodical.  Pro- 
ceeding by  way  of  example  from  a  burning  torch  to  chemical 
laws,  he  shows  that  positive  science  is  based  on  observation 
and  experiment,  a  method  to  be  extended  also  to  moral 
truths.  Ideal  science  is  legitimate  because  it  results  from 
an  irresistible  impulse  in  man  to  seek  beyond ;  yet  no  reality 
can  be  reached  by  mere  reasoning,  and  every  system  of  phi- 
losophy represents  merely  the  amount  of  positive  knowledge 
of  its  time.  Like  Renan,  he  sees  a  law  of  progress  in  human 
society,  progress  in  science,  in  material  welfare,  in  morality. 
God  is  the  center  and  the  mysterious  unity  toward  which 
the  universal  order  converges  and  to  an  appreciation  of 
which  only  sentiment  can  lead.  In  ideal  science,  though  it 
rests  on  demonstrated  facts,  the  largest  share  will  always  be 
contributed  by  fantasy. 

It  is  illuminating  to  place  beside  these  two  essays  the 
account  by  Taine  ^^  of  discussions  with  Renan  and  Berthelot 
in  1862 : 

I  have  seen  a  good  deal  of  Renan  at  Chalifer,  and  he  also  spent 
a  whole  evening  with  me. 

He  is,  above  everything,  a  passionate,  nervous  man,  beset  by 
his  own  ideas.  He  walked  up  and  down  my  room  as  if  he  were 
in  a  cage,  with  the  jerky  tones  and  gestures  of  invention  in  full 
ebullition.  There  is  a  great  difference  between  him  and  Ber- 
thelot, who  is  as  quiet  as  a  patient,  laboring  ox,  chewing  the 
cud  of  his  idea  and  dwelling  upon  it.  It  is  the  contrast  between 
inspiration  and  meditation. 

Neither  of  them  has,  like  Bertrand  the  mathematician,  the 
analytical  habits  of  Condillac.  The  one  ferments  slowly  and 
obscurely,  the  other  explodes.  Neither  of  them  goes  methodically 
forward,  passing  from  the  known  to  the  unknown. 

Renan  is  perfectly  incapable  of  precise  formulas;  he  does  not 
go  from  one  precise  truth  to  another,  but  feels  his  way  as  he 
goes.  He  has  impressions,  a  word  which  expresses  the  whole 
thing.    Philosophy  and  generalizations  are  but  the  echo  of  things 

"  Vie  et  correspondance,  vol.  ii,  pp.  242-244. 

247 


EENEST  RENAN 

within  him;   he  has  no  system,  but  only  views  and  sensations. 

In  metaphysics  he  is  absolutely  unstable,  entirely  lacking  in 
proofs  and  analysis.  Roughly  speaking,  he  is  a  poetical  Kant  with 
no  formula;  exactly  like  Carlyle;  I  read  him  parts  of  the  Sartor 
Besartus,  which  he  thought  admirable.  He  admits  that  he  only 
perceives  phenomena  and  their  laws,  that  beyond  lies  an  abyss,  an 
X  whence  these  are  derived,  that  we  suspect  something,  though 
very  little,  of  it  through  the  sublime  sense  of  duty;  we  only 
know  that  in  the  beyond  there  is  something  sublime  which  cor- 
responds to  the  sublimity  of  our  sense  of  duty.  In  any  case,  that 
something  is  not  a  person;  personality  and  individuality  are  only 
to  be  met  with  at  the  further  end  of  physiology,  at  the  final  point 
of  phenomena,  and  not  at  the  beginning.  Therefore  there  is  no 
Personal  God. 

As  to  the  soul,  he  does  not  believe  in  personal  imuArtality; 
he  only  admits  immortality  of  works.  "My  idea,  the  idea  to  which 
I  have  devoted  myself,  survives  me.  In  it  I  myself  survive  in 
proportion  to  the  love  I  have  given  it  and  the  progress  I  have 
made  with  it." 

Nevertheless  he  leaves  a  lacuna  which  Faith  and  Symbols  alone 
can  fill,  though  only  with  simple  allegories  and  pure  presump- 
tions; this  is  the  nature  of  that  supreme  x,  and  of  the  correlation 
between  a  noble  soul  and  that  x. 

"A  skeptic  who,  where  his  skepticism  makes  a  hole,  stops  up 
the  hole  with  his  mysticism."  Berthelot  laughed,  and  called  me 
a  man  of  labels,  when  I  told  Renan  that  this  was  the  definitiort 
of  him. 

For  everything  else,  for  psychological,  historical  and  all  other 
facts,  he  is  a  pure  Positivist;  he  believes  in  natural  laws  only,  and 
absolutely  denies  all  supernatural  intervention. 

Of  the  three,  I  am  the  most  truly  Positivist  and  the  least  Mys- 
tical. 

This  eager,  excitable  man  was  nevertheless  completely 
self-controlled  in  print.  While  his  dismissal  from  his  pro- 
fessorship was  in  the  air,  he  published  in  the  Revue  des  deux 
Mondes  (May  1)  an  essay  "On  Higher  Instruction  in 
France, ' '  ®*  which  is  without  a  single  specific  reference  to 
anything  that  could  bear  a  personal  hue. 

"Questions  contemporaines. 

248 


SOCIAL  LIFE 

It  is  "not  a  criticism  of  any  administration,"  but  a  plea 
for  improvement.  He  stands  for  science  in  opposition  to 
popular  university  lectures  calculated  to  attract  an  audience. 
The  College  de  France  should  furnish  the  great  laboratory 
for  discoveries;  investigation,  not  rhetoric,  should  be  its 
method;  to  form  scholars,  not  to  please  the  crowd,  its  aim. 
And  so  he  hopes  even  for  the  establishment  of  a  chair  of 
Celtic — not  that  everything  should  be  taught,  but  that  the 
noble  tradition  of  original  research  may  be  maintained.  He 
is  confident  that  democracy  will  support  science,  though 
not  understanding  it,  "I  am  one, ' '  he  expectantly  exclaims, 
"who  believes  in  the  future  of  democracy."  But  popular 
prejudice  should  not  be  flattered.  If  a  foreign  example, 
such  as  that  of  German  philology,  is  good,  it  should  be  in- 
culcated. "To  cultivate  one's  faults  is  not  the  way  to  be 
truly  oneself. ' '  Indeed,  in  the  things  of  the  mind,  exclusion 
has  become  impossible.  ' '  The  intellectual  culture  of  Europe 
is  a  vast  exchange  where  each  gives  and  receives  in  turn, 
where  the  pupil  of  yesterday  becomes  the  master  of  to-day. 
It  is  a  tree  of  which  each  branch  participates  in  the  life 
of  the  others  and  on  which  the  only  fruitless  branches  are 
those  that  are  isolated  and  deprived  of  communion  with  the 
whole." 


For  the  Dehats  after  the  Syrian  expedition  Renan  wrote 
few  contributions  of  importance.  In  fact,  this  journal, 
though  still  remarkable  for  its  Varietes,  felt  the  unhappy 
effects  of  political  liberty  in  the  loss  of  some  of  its  superior 
literary  skill.  Often  trivial  parliamentary  debates  crowded 
out  articles  of  permanent  interest.  Taiue,  Bersot  and 
Saint-Marc  Girardin,  among  others,  continued  to  contribute 
freely.  Prevost-Paradol  was  nothing  less  than  astounding 
in  the  number  and  variety  of  his  articles;  there  were  also 
new  writers,  such  as  Karl  Hillebrand,  Maxirae  du  Camp  and 

249 


Viollet-le-Duc,  But  fatigue  seems  to  have  overtaken  de  Sacy 
and  some  others  of  the  good  old  school.  As  for  Renan,  never  a 
real  journalist  like  Bersot,  or  Prevost-Paradol  or  Maxime  du 
Camp,  who  turned  everything  into  copy,  during  the  early 
'60  's  only  three  or  four  modest  notes  of  his  on  learned  books 
appeared,  and  one  long  essay  on  the  Marcus  Aurelius  of 
Desvergers  (July  8  and  9,  1864),  passages  from  which  were 
afterwards  embodied  in  his  own  volume  on  this  emperor. 
He,  however,  kept  up  close  relations  with  the  editorial 
group  and  took  part,  we  may  be  sure,  in  the  discussions  in 
the  oflBce  around  the  chair  of  that  successful  artist  and  om- 
nivorous reader,  turned  editor  and  newspaper  proprietor, 
]&douard  Bertin,*®  These  discussions,  Taine  tells  us,  were 
chiefly  on  literature,  history,  philosophy  and  science.  "  I  do 
not  know  a  place,"  he  continues,  "excepting  the  dinner  pre- 
sided over  by  Sainte-Beuve,  where  all  sorts  of  general  ideas 
were  handled  with  such  tolerance  and  sincerity. ' '  ^° 

The  dinners  here  alluded  to  were  the  celebrated  "diners 
Magny,"  of  which  Goncourt  has  left  such  an  inadequate 
report.  Founded  November  22,  1862,  by  the  eccentric  artist 
Gavarni  with  the  aid  of  Sainte-Beuve,  they  were  held  fort- 
nightly at  the  Magny  restaurant,  rue  Contrescarpe,  in  the 
Latin  Quarter,  and  soon  gathered  to  them  the  best  literary 
and  artistic  intellect  of  Paris,  including  Gautier,  Flaubert, 
Scherer,  Nefftzer,  Tourguenieff,  Berthelot,  and  others  of 
more  transitory  importance.^^  Renan  entered  March  28, 
1863,  but  offended,  perhaps  by  the  noise,  perhaps  by  the 

**Bertin  made  over  3,500  paintings  and  drawings,  the  fruit  of  his 
travels  in  various  regions  of  Europe  and  the  Orient. 

••  Demiers  essais,  p.  262. 

"  The  Goncourt  Journal,  vol.  ii,  p.  67,  under  date  of  Saturday,  No- 
vember 22,  1862,  tells  of  the  first  dinner  attended  by  six;  and  thence- 
forth there  are  frequent  references  to  these  meetings.  On  May  11,  1863, 
the  day  was  changed  probably  to  suit  Sainte-Beuve,  from  Saturday  to 
Monday,  which  was  thenceforth  adhered  to.  Many  guests,  including 
at  times  George  Sand,  are  mentioned.  There  is  an  incomplete  list  also 
in  Sainte-Beuve,  Souvenirs  et  indiscretions,  p.  149,  note. 

250 


SOCIAL  LIFE 

mockery  that  greeted  his  remark,  "I  admire  Jesus  complete- 
ly" (July  20,  1863),  he  stayed  away  and  had  to  be  coaxed 
back  by  Saint€-Beuve.^^  The  Goncourt  Journal  repeats  only 
what  was  sensational,  sexual  or  scandalous,  causing  Taine  to 
remark :  "  If  we  had  exchanged  nothing  but  such  platitudes, 
neither  my  friends  nor  I  would  have  attended  beyond  a  sec- 
ond time. ' '  *'  Undoubtedly  there  was  much  good  talk,  and 
Kenan's  part,  even  in  the  scrappy  Goncourt  account,  is  al- 
ways serious  and  elevated. 

After  his  return  from  Syria,  Renan  became  associated 
with  the  circle  of  the  dissipated  and  erratic,  but  highly  in- 
telligent Prince  Napoleon  (Plon-Plon).®*  He  was  further 
in  1862  presented  by  Sainte-Beuve  to  the  Princess  ^latilde 
at  Saint-Gratien  (August  T),*"*  where  he  was  already  much 
appreciated,"*  as  any  one  praised  by  the  great  critic  was 
sure  to  be.  Renan  frequented  also  the  happy-go-lucky  salon 
of  the  lively  Mme.  Mohl  (rue  du  Bac),  where  all  sorts  of 
eminent  political  and  philosophical  opposites  rubbed  el- 
bows.*^ At  the  more  dignified  house  of  l&douard  Bertin  (rue 

"Letter,  September  19,  1863. 

•*  Vie  et  correspondance. 

**  Grant  Dufif. 

*^  Nouvelle  correspondance.  In  Lettres  a  la  Princesse,  there  is  ques- 
tion of  this  visit  in  a  letter  (viii)  of  August  4.  The  following  letter 
(ix)  dated  the  22nd,  Tuesday,  must  be  of  August  12,  as  there  was  no 
Tuesday,  the  twenty-second  of  any  month  of  1862  after  the  visit.  We 
learn  from  this  letter  that  Kenan  had  given  a  lecture  at  Saint-Gratien 
on  the  Gospels,  and,  further,  that  he  was  charmed  with  the  Princess. 
"He  is  one  of  the  few  Frenchmen,"  says  Sainte-Beuve,  "who  know 
what  is  discovered  elsewhere,  and  who  not  only  know  it,  but  improve 
it." 

••  Sainte-Beuve 's  Letter  to  Kenan  of  August  3,  1862. 

"Senior,  with  his  daughter,  and  Trevelyan  met  Kenan  at  Mme. 
Mohl's  April  9,  1862,  at  breakfast,  since,  owing  to  the  recent  death  of 
his  father-in-law,  propriety  forbade  the  more  formal  dinner:  Con- 
versations, vol.  ii,  p.  147,  and  M.  C.  M.  Simpson,  Many  Memories  of 
Many  People,  p.  316.  George  Eliot  had  the  same  satisfaction  December 
31,  1866;  Life,  vol.  iii,  p.  1.  Kenan's  relations  with  the  Mohls  were 
very  close,  and  he  was  very  kind  and  helpful  to  Mme.  Mohl  after  her 
husband's  death.  The  catalogue  of  Mohl's  library  is  his  work,  Cata- 
loffue  de  la  bibliotheque  orientale  de  feu  M.  J.  Mohl,  Paris,  E.  Levoux, 
1876.     Mrs.  Simpson  tells  a  story,  without  date,  of  a  mortifying  ex- 

251 


ERNEST  RENAN 

des  Saints-PSres),  he  found  grace  and  charm  in  his  host 
and  art,  music,  and  literature  for  entertainment.  For  the 
average  social  function,  however,  Renan  was  not  adapted. 
He  still  suffered  the  inhibitions  that  he  had  portrayed  in 
Hermann.  "Renan  is  not  a  society  man,"  writes  Taine,^* 
'  *  he  does  not  know  how  to  chat  with  ladies ;  he  must  have 
specialists.  He  lacks  skill  in  making  and  seizing  opportuni- 
ties. He  is  above  everything  else  a  man  of  his  own  idea,  a 
priest  absorbed  in  his  God.  On  this  fact  he  prides  himself 
justly  enough." 

But  his  talk  was  extraordinary  and  fascinating.  ' '  Renan 's 
appearance  was  against  him, ' '  says  Mrs.  Simpson.  ' '  He  was 
fat,  his  arms  and  legs  were  particularly  short,  his  face  was 
very  pale,  and  the  ultra-suavity  of  the  seminarists  still  clung 
to  him.  But  one  forgot  all  these  disadvantages  when  he  be- 
gan to  speak.  .  .  .  He  was  entirely  without  airs,  and  often 
did  not  even  lead  the  conversation;  he  was  willing  to  talk 
on  any  subject  suggested  by  his  hearers."  ^* 

Of  Renan 's  family  life  we  hear  very  little.  It  is  a  sub- 
ject on  which,  with  true  Breton  secretiveness,  he  rarely  ex- 
presses himself.  A  daughter,  one  of  the  great  comforts  of 
his  later  life,  was  born  March  1,  1862,  and  named  Noemi, 
after  a  playmate  of  his  childhood.  On  March  16  died  Henri 
Scheffer,  whose  part  in  the  intellectual  life  of  his  son-in-law 
does  not  appear  to  have  been  of  much  importance.  Chalifer, 
near  Lagny,  where  the  Scheffers  had  a  little  country  place, 
was  the  vacation  resort  till  1863,  when  for  repose  after  the 
publication  of  the  Life  of  Jesus,  he,  with  his  wife  and  chil- 

•perience  that  befell  Renan  at  the  home  of  these  friends.  The  Mohls 
had  invited  Cousin,  Guizot,  Prfivost-Paradol  and  Mignet  to  meet  Mme. 
Ristori.  Renan,  arriving  after  dinner  and  coming  into  the  darkened 
room,  did  not  see  the  actress  and,  regardless  of  the  kicks  Cousin  gave 
him  to  warn  him  to  stop  talking,  blurted  out:  "It  is  that  Italian 
■woman,  that  actress  who  plays  on  the  boulevard,  who  degrades  art." 
Whereupon  Ristori  exploded  and  left  the  house.    Many  Memories,  p.  317. 

**  Vie  et  correspoTidance,  vol.  ii,  p.  244. 

••  Many  Memories,  p.  316. 

252 


SOCIAL  LIFE 

dren,  spent  nearly  three  months  by  the  sea  at  Dinard,  and 
later  on  the  Island  of  Jersey  and  at  Granville.  The  literary 
people  of  the  age,  Balzac,  De  Musset,  George  Sand,  Saint©- 
Beuve,  Flaubert,  Gautier — the  list  could  be  ind^nitely  ex- 
tended— ^seem  to  have  been  chronically  hard  up.  This  was 
not  the  case  with  Renan,  poor  though  he  was,  and  even  to 
the  end  of  his  life  in  only  moderate  circumstances.  With- 
out superfluities,  he  managed  by  economy  to  have  enough. 
In  1864  he  secured  a  little  place  at  Sevres,  with  the  Berthe- 
lots  for  neighbors,  his  city  residence  being  an  apartment  in 
the  rue  Vanneau.  His  mother,  whose  image  he  was,^°°  con- 
tinued to  be  an  honored  member  of  the  household.  "Dear 
old  Madame  Renan, ' '  says  Taine,  ^°^ ' '  is  gentle  and  dignified ; 
she  is  eighty  years  old;  she  made  me  tell  the  story  of  my 
patron,  Saint  Hippolytus,  and,  smiling,  raised  her  hands 
toward  heaven  at  the  thought  of  what  her  son  has  become 
after  his  pious  bringing  up."  Few  indeed  can  believe  that 
a  good  person  with  whom  they  live  is  going  to  be  eternally 
damned. 

^^  Nouveaux  Lundis,  vol.  ii,  p.  385. 

"*  Vie  et  carrespondance,  vol.  ii,  p.  245. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

SECOND    ORIENTAL    TRIP;    LITERARY    AND    SCHOLARLY    PRODUCTIONS} 
POLITICAL  CAMPAIGN 

•    (1863-1870) 

From  November,  1864,  to  July,  1865,  Renan  and  his  wife  were 
traveling  in  Egypt,  Syria,  and  Greece.  After  his  return,  he  was 
very  busy  with  his  Origins  of  Christianity,  publishing  The  Apostles 
in  April,  1866,  and  Saint  Paul  in  June,  1869.  During  his  trip  he 
sent  the  Revue  des  deux  Mondes  an  article  on  Egypt;  another 
article  of  the  year  1865  being  an  introduction  to  a  book.  In  1866 
he  published  a  paper  written  many  years  before,  and  in  1868 
a  tribute  to  Le  Clerc.  His  contributions  to  the  Debats  were  also 
meager,  consisting  in  book  notes,  articles  on  St.  Francis  and  Gali- 
leo, 1866,  a  review  of  Sainte-Beuve's  Port-Royal,  third  edition, 
1867,  and  "The  Caesars,"  1868.  In  1867  he  wrote  an  article  on 
the  Institut  for  the  Paris  Guide.  In  June,  1868,  his  mother  died, 
and  in  September,  after  a  trip  to  Germany,  he  revisited  Treguier 
and  neighboring  places.  In  erudition  he  worked  persistently  on 
the  Report  of  his  Phoenician  Mission  and  on  papers  for  learned 
societies.  The  monumental  Corpus  Inscriptionum  Semiticaruni 
absorbed  much  of  his  attention  from  1867  on.  In  1867,  too,  he 
became  secretary  of  the  Societe  Asiatique,  and  for  fifteen  years 
he  made  to  that  body  an  extended  annual  report  on  the  progress 
of  oriental  studies.  In  1868  he  published  Contemporary  Questions,, 
made  up  of  various  pamphlets  and  articles.  Much  time  in  1869 
was  given  to  politics.  From  March  to  June  he  campaigned  for  a 
seat  in  the  Corps  Legislatif  from  the  second  district  of  Seine-et- 
Marne,  but  was  unsuccessful.  In  this  connection,  besides  purely 
political  speeches,  he  delivered  three  lectures:  "The  Part  of  the 
Family  and  the  State  in  Education"  (originally  prepared  for  an 
educational  society),  "Turgot,"  and  "The  Services  of  Science  to 
the  People."  He  summed  up  his  views  of  political  conditions  in 
an  article  on  "Constitutional  Monarchy  in  France"  in  the  Revue 
des  deux  Mondes  for  November  1.    In  January,  1870,  Renan  was 

254 


SECOND  ORIENTAL  TRIP 

elected  president  of  the  Academy  of  Inscriptions  and  Belles-Let- 
tres  and  shortly  afterwards  he  was  a  second  time  nominated  for 
the  professorship  of  Hebrew  in  the  College  de  France.  In  July 
he  went  lo  Norway  with  the  Prince  Napoleon  on  a  yachting  trip 
which  was  interrupted  by  the  declaration  of  war. 


The  publication  of  the  Life  of  Jesus  was  the  first  stage  in 
the  achievement  of  the  life  work,  a  history  of  the  origins  of 
Christianity,  which  Renan  had  proposed  to  himself  in  The 
Future  of  Science  fifteen  years  before.  He  now  proceeded 
uninterruptedly  with  this  task  as  his  main  scholarly  pur- 
suit, producing  a  new  volume  at  the  average  interval  of 
three  years.  The  doctrinal  history  that  he  had  at  first  pro- 
jected was  changed  to  a  study  of  personalities,  as  he  became 
vividly  aware  that  Jesus  and  Paul  and  Peter  and  countless 
lesser  and  even  nameless  individuals  had  made  the  Church, 
not  so  much  by  their  creed,  as  by  their  lives.  In  order  to 
add  vital  reality  to  his  conceptions,  he  determined  to  visit 
all  the  important  centers  of  apostolic  activity. 

Leaving  the  children  in  the  care  of  the  two  grandmothers, 
he  and  his  wife  traveled  from  November,  1864,  to  the  end  of 
June,  1865,  in  Egypt,  Syria,  Asia  Minor  and  Greece,  endur- 
ing hardships  of  which  he  never  complains,  and  enjoying 
new  experiences  with  unfailing  enthusiasm.  Intense  interest 
and  eagerness  to  see  everything  significant  or  beautiful  are 
the  marks  of  Renan  as  a  traveler.  Every  place  that  he  is 
likely  never  to  visit  he  regrets.  The  trip  gets  constantly 
extended,  in  spite  of  Berthelot's  complaints  and  warnings. 
As  travelers,  indeed,  the  two  friends  were  very  different. 
Berthelot's  letters  from  Egypt  in  1869  give  space  enough  t^ 
heat,  insect  pests  and  other  discomforts ;  Renan  barely  men- 
tions a  sunstroke,  a  horrible  Turkish  boat,  a  trying  journey 
over  appallingly  rough  country.  Sustained  by  the  feeling 
of  what  he  owes  to  his  work,  he  is  entirely  absorbed  in  what 

255 


ERNEST  RENAN 

he  learns  and  what  he  thinks,  in  the  recollections  of  bible 
times,  in  objects  that  make  the  past  alive. 

Over  a  month  was  spent  in  Egypt,  though  this  was  not  in 
the  plans.  With  the  archsBologist  Mariette  for  a  guide,  he 
went  up  the  Nile  to  the  Assouan  cataract,  and  sent  an  arti- 
cle, "Ancient  Egypt,"  in  the  form  of  a  letter  to  the  director 
of  the  Bevue  des  deux  Mondes,  dated  "The  Nile,  from  As- 
souan to  Cairo,  December,  1864."  This,  the  only  published 
account  of  his  trip,  appeared  April  1,  1865,^  and  was  so 
well  received  that  Buloz  wanted  more.^  The  piece  is  a 
sort  of  popular  exposition  of  Mariette 's  discoveries,  with 
high  praise  for  that  indefatigable  worker.  A  new  kind  of 
life  and  history  is  opened  to  Renan,  and  he  is  almost  over- 
whelmed with  a  chronology  that  takes  him  back  5,000  years 
before  Christ.  Of  Thebes  he  writes:  "I  spent  four  days 
in  this  unequaled  library,  guided  by  M.  Mariette,  my  ad- 
mirable 'exegete,'  from  obelisk  to  obelisk,  from  chapel  to 
chapel. ' '  ^  He  habitually  amalgamates  ancient  and  modern : 
"Thebes  is  the  Versailles  and  the  Saint  Denys  of  an  Egyp- 
tian monarchy. ' '  *  The  Pharaohs  are  '  *  Louis  XIV  's, "  a 
flattering  inscription  is  "the  eloquence  of  the  Moniteur, 
the  style  of  the  official  journalist."  This  ancient  civiliza- 
tion, which  seems  to  contradict  the  theory  that  history  orig- 
inates in  mythology,  fills  him  with  astonishment,  but  he  de- 
tects in  it  the  absence  of  nobility.  Egypt,  lacking  the  ideal, 
was  condemned  to  millenniums  of  mediocrity ;  it  gave  of  its 
treasures  to  its  neighbors,  but,  religion  aside,  Greece  alone 
is  * '  the  land  of  noble  origins. ' ' 

From  Egypt  Renan  proceeded  to  Syria,  where  he  spent 

the  month  of  January,  1865.    His  first  care  was  to  visit  the 

*tomb  of  Henriette,  and  here,  in  the  adjacent  chapel,  he 


^  Melanges  d  'histoire  et  de  voyages. 
'Letter  of  Berthelot,  p.  361. 
'Melanges,  p.  29. 
*  To  Berthelot,  December  17,  1864. 

256 


SECOND  ORIENTAL  TRIP 

had  a  service  celebrated  "in  that  fine  Maronitic  liturgy, 
which  is  one  of  the  oldest  and  goes  back  almost  to  the  origins 
of  Christianity. ' ' '  He  still  hoped  to  make  some  excavations 
at  Umm-el-  'Awamid,  but  in  this  project  he  was  disappointed. 
His  chief  acquisition  was  Damascus.  ' '  I  have  fully  fixed  my 
background  for  St.  Paul's  conversion.  It  took  place  in  a 
vast  cultivated  plain,  thickly  inhabited,  and  perhaps  even 
in  the  midst  of  gardens.  Every  external  accident  must  be 
dismissed;  the  phenomenon  took  place  entirely  in  the  soul 
of  Paul. ' '  ^  His  recollections  of  his  own  visions  in  fever  com- 
pleted his  conception  of  Paul's  experience. 

From  the  middle  of  February  to  the  end  of  March,  the 
Renans  were  in  Athens,  and  here  he  was  in  ecstasy.  There 
was  not  a  dull  moment  amidst  all  this  glory.  That  the 
Greeks  had  always  seemed  to  him  models  in  art,  philosophy, 
poetry  and  social  life,  the  youthful  notebooks  and  The  Fu- 
ture of  Science  sufficiently  testify,  but  his  Semitic  studies 
bad  somewhat  clouded  this  impression.  Now  his  early  recol- 
lections came  back  upon  him  like  a  fresh  and  penetrating 
breeze  from  afar.  It  was,  he  says,  the  strongest  impression 
he  had  ever  experienced.  Here  was  a  place  where  perfection 
really  existed,  "the  ideal  crystallized  in  marble."  By  the 
side  of  the  Jewish  miracle,  the  Greek  miracle  took  its  place, 
' '  a  type  of  eternal  beauty,  without  local  or  national  disfigure- 
ments." On  the  sacred  hill,  he  wrote  the  "Prayer  on  the 
Acropolis,"  found  many  years  later  among  his  notes  of 
travel  and  published  in  his  Recollections.  The  "incompar- 
able superiority  of  the  Greek  world,  the  true  and  simple 
grandeur  of  all  it  has  left  us  "  ^  was  one  of  those  permanent 
impressions  that  constitute  his  personality.* 

•To  Berthelot,  January  12,  1865. 

•To  Berthelot,  January  21. 

'  To  Berthelot,  March  19. 

■  The  immediate  effect  ia  noted  by  Sainte-Beuve  in  a  letter  to  the 
Princess,  August  31,  1866:  "A  Kenan,  gay,  lively,  brightened  by  an 
wdeacribable  ray  of  the  sun  of  Greece,  since  he  was  there, ' ' 

257 


ERNEST  RENAN 

In  April  he  visited  Smyrna,  whence  he  took  a  terribly 
rough  caravan  trip  to  Ephesus  and  the  interior,  and  later 
a  rougher  sea  trip  to  Patmos,  where  the  boat  tossed  for 
fifty-two  hours  outside  the  harbor  without  being  able  to 
enter,  experiences  which  are  all  reproduced  in  the  journeys 
of  St.  Paul.  From  Athens,  having  seen  the  Argolid  and 
Corinth,^  he  went  to  Saloniki  by  a  coasting  vessel  that 
touched  at  every  port;  then  through  Macedonia  and  by  an 
abominable  Turkish  boat  to  Constantinople,  a  place  he  was 
glad  to  see  once,  but  only  once.  "Never  has  human  base- 
ness, shame,  stupidity  and  self-satisfied  emptiness  created 
such  an  adequate  portrayal  of  itself.  .  .  .  This  city  seems 
to  me  like  a  city  of  monkeys,  a  sort  of  perpetual  capital 
founded  by  the  worthy  Constantine  for  ignominy,  intrigue 
and  stupidity."" 

By  June  30  he  was  back  in  his  suburban  place  at  Sevres, 
amply  provided  with  vivid  impressions  for  his  volumes  on 
the  Apostles  and  St.  Paul.  In  these  volumes  the  scene  of 
Paul's  vision  near  Damascus,  the  splendor  and  corruption 
of  Antioch,  the  lonely  paths  amid  the  mountains  of  Asia 
Minor  and  Macedonia,  are  portrayed  as  only  an  eyewitness 
could  paint  them,  while  in  all  sorts  of  details  a  thousand 
life-giving  touches  were  the  result  of  these  oriental  expe- 
riences. 

Renan  's  notions  about  the  resurrection  are  saturated  with 
his  personal  feelings  on  visiting  his  sister's  tomb.  To  Ber- 
thelot  he  wrote  (January  12,  1865)  :  *'We  made  the  trip 
by  short  stages  in  lovely  April-like  weather.  The  mountain 
is  already  green  and  blooming  as  in  spring.  Each  hollow 
of  the  rock  is  a  basket  of  anemones  and  cyclamens.  It  was 
a  great  joy  for  me  to  see  again  that  beautiful  road  she 


•May  14?     The  date  printed  in  the  Correspondance  i8  impossible, 
as  he  was  at  Smyrna  May  6. 
»Jbid.,  June  13. 

258 


LITERARY  AND  SCHOLARLY  PRODUCTIONS 

loved  so  much,  and  where  literally  each  step  recalled  a 
remembrance  of  her."    In  The  Apostles  we  read  (p.  29) : 

It  was  near  the  end  of  April.  The  earth  is  then  covered  with 
red  anemones,  which  are  probably  those  "lilies  of  the  field"  fromj 
which  Jesus  loved  to  draw  comparisons.  At  each  step,  his  words 
came  back  to  them,  as  though  attached  to  the  thousand  casual 
objects  of  the  road.  Here  was  the  tree,  the  flower,  the  field,  each 
the  source  of  a  parable;  here  the  hill  where  he  spoke  so  engag- 
ingly; here  the  boat  in  which  he  taught.  .  .  .  They  saw  him  in 
every  spot  where  they  had  lived  with  him.  ...  If  all  of  us,  once 
a  year,  in  secret,  for  a  brief  moment  long  enough  only  for  the 
exchange  of  a  few  words,  could  see  again  our  lost  loved  ones,  death 
would  be  no  longer  death.  [And  on  another  page  (p.  37)]:  It 
is  a  peculiar  property  of  great  and  holy  things  always  to  grow 
greater  and  purer.  The  feeling  for  a  loved  one  lost  is  much  morq 
prolific  at  a  distance  than  on  the  morrow  of  death.  The  greater 
the  separation,  the  stronger  the  feeling.  The  grief  which  at  first 
mingled  with  it  and,  in  a  sense,  lessened  it,  changes  into  a  serene 
reverence.  The  image  of  the  dead  is  transfigured,  idealized,  be- 
comes the  soul  of  one's  life,  the  principle  of  every  action,  the 
source  of  every  joy,  the  oracle  consulted,  the  consolation  sought 
in  moments  of  dejection.  Death  is  the  necessary  condition  for 
every  apotheosis.  Jesus,  so  loved  during  his  life,  was  even  mor0 
deeply  loved  after  his  last  breath,  or  rather,  his  last  breath  became 
the  beginning  of  his  true  life  in  the  bosom  of  his  Church. 

"The  second  life  of  Jesus,"  he  continues  after  telling  of 
the  Ascension,  ' '  pale  image  of  the  first,  is  still  full  of  charm. 
Henceforth  all  perfume  from  him  is  lost.  Risen  on  his  cloud 
to  the  right  hand  of  his  Father,  he  leaves  us  with  men,  and 
heavens !  how  grievous  is  the  descent.  The  reign  of  poetry 
is  past." 

It  is  thus  with  regret  that  Renan  takes  leave  of  Jesus  to 
proceed  with  a  task  that  seems  to  him  more  commonplace. 
And  indeed  a  certain  ardor,  a  certain  juvenile  exuberance, 
which  was  in  strange  contrast  with  his  mature  and  tranquil 
intellectual  attainment,  now  disappears,  or  almost  disap- 
pears,  from  his  work.     What  Renan  regretted  was  just 

259 


ERNEST  RENAN 

what  gave  satisfaction  to  his  friend  Taine,  who,  in  announc- 
ing the  volume  in  the  Debats,'^^  expresses  the  opinion  that 
"the  author  of  The  Apostles  has  surpassed  the  author  of  the 
Life  of  JesiLs."^^ 

The  memories  of  Henriette,  indeed,  in  this  second  volume 
of  the  Origins,  represent  the  final  effort  of  certain  strong 
sentimental  influences  from  which  Renan  was  fast  getting 
weaned.  Saint  Paul,  dedicated  to  his  wife,  marks  the  com- 
pletion of  his  emancipation  from  his  childhood  and  youth. 
He  was  henceforth  fully  developed  and  entirely  himself. 
The  friends  he  had  made  have  taken  the  place  of  those  among 
whom  he  was  born.  His  dearly  loved  mother  died  in 
June,  1868,  leaving  him  isolated  from  the  past  and  morally 
self-sustaining  in  his  own  environment.  To  meet  the  evil 
days  that  he  forsees,  he  goes  forward  hand  in  hand  with  the 
companion  of  his  choice.  Henriette  was  now  a  cherished 
recollection,  not  a  directive  force.  The  emotional  agitations 
that  dictated  the  Life  of  Jesus  and  the  early  chapters  of  The 
Apostles  are  no  longer  persistently  active.  The  spectacle 
of  the  universe  loses  none  of  its  interest,  but  it  ceases  to  in- 
spire a  mystical  exaltation. 

The  death  of  his  mother  led  Renan  to  revisit  Treguier  in 
the  summer  of  1868,  On  June  20,  he  wrote  from  Sevres  to 
her  tenant,  Le  Bigot,  to  reassure  him  about  his  lease  of  the 
house.^^  All  his  dealings  with  these  humble  people  ex- 
hibit his  kindly  and  genial  nature  in  a  most  attractive  light. 
Though  one  of  the  world 's  celebrities,  he  was  with  them  only 
one  sweet  human  being  dealing  with  another  of  his  kind. 

"April  13,  1866.  After  his  brief  notice,  Taine  quotes  fourteen 
pages  of  the  introduction,  from  ' '  Une  chose  unique, "  ?•  1>  to  the  end. 
Kenan  reciprocated  with  a  notice  of  Taine 's  Intelligence  in  the  DSbats, 
March  28,  1870,  where  he  quotes  the  Preface  in  full.  "In  the  philoso- 
phy of  realities, ' '  he  remarks,  ' '  though  there  are  plenty  of  obscurities, 
there  are  only  two  questions  wholly  mysterious,  the  origin  of  human 
consciousness  and  the  supreme  end  of  the  universe." 

"  The  review  in  the  DSbats  was  by  Albert  Eeville,  July  4,  5  and  6. 

»Ren6  d'Ys,  pp.  60-62. 

260 


LITERARY  AND  SCHOLARLY  PRODUCTIONS 

After  a  trip  to  Germany,  he  came  in  the  middle  of  Septem- 
ber to  his  old  home,  visiting  also  Lannion,  Paimpol,  and  the 
Isle  de  Brehat,  in  all  of  which  places  he  had  relatives.  His 
graceful  expression  of  a  desire  to  inspect  his  old  college 
met  with  a  polite  refusal.  To  many  he  was  not  at  this  time 
welcome,  though  later  this  intolerance  was  somewhat  al- 
leviated, when  it  was  found  out  that  he  was  not  really  the 
devil.  Some  of  the  neighbors  sprinkled  the  chairs  he  had 
sat  in  with  holy  water,  and  children  gazed  at  him  with  ad- 
miration and  terror.  The  subject  of  these  attentions  could 
not  fail  to  feel  a  trifle  uncomfortable,  and  he  did  not  come 
again  to  Brittany  for  sixteen  years. 

Saint  Paul  appeared  June  9,  1869.^*  Here  Renan  feels 
himself  on  the  firm  ground  of  fact,  though  conjecture  and 
imagination  still  have  ample  space.  "Jesus  and  the  prim- 
itive Church  of  Jerusalem  seem  like  forms  of  a  distant  para- 
dise, veiled  in  a  mysterious  haze."^^  And  again,  after 
Paul,  there  begins  a  profound  darkness,  "in  which  the 
bloody  glow  of  the  barbarous  festivals  of  Nero  and  the  light- 
nings of  the  Apocalypse  alone  throw  some  gleams  of  light. ' '  ^" 
Two  further  volumes,  he  thinks,  will  be  sufficient  for  the 
task  ahead  of  him.  "I  hope  that  within  five  years  I  may 
complete  the  work  for  which  I  have  reserved  the  ripest 
years  of  my  life.  It  has  cost  me  many  sacrifices,  above  all 
by  excluding  me  from  teaching  in  the  College  de  France, 
which  was  the  second  aim  I  had  set  before  myself.  But  we 
must  not  demand  too  much;  perhaps  he  who  has  been  per- 
mitted out  of  two  projects  to  realize  one,  ought  not  to  com- 
plain of  his  lot,  particularly  if  he  has  looked  upon  these 
projects  as  duties. ' ' "     Before  the  next  volume  could  ap- 

"The  advance  notice  in  the  Debats,  June  8,  signed  P.  David,  secre- 
tary of  the  board  of  editors,  quotes  the  last  chapter  of  the  book. 
The  review  by  Bersot  appeared  August  29  and  31. 

"  Introduction,  p.  iii. 

"  Ibid. 

"Ibid.,  p.  Ixsvii. 

261 


ERNEST  RENAN 

pear  (1873),  the  professor  was  again  seated  in  his  chair  of 
Hebrew. 

Some  by-products  of  Renan's  studies  appeared  as  notes 
— four  or  five  a  year — on  learned  books  in  the  Debats}* 
Just  after  the  publication  of  The  Apostles,  he  again  for  a 
brief  period  took  up  book  reviewing,  producing  ' '  Francis  of 
Assisi"  (August  20  and  21,  1866)  and  "The  Trial  of  Gal- 
ileo"^® (November  12,  1866),  and  out  of  friendship  for 
Sainte-Beuve,  a  charming  and  much  appreciated  notice  of 
the  third  edition  of  Port-Royal  (November  15,  1867). 2° 

The  most  important  of  these  reviews,  and  one  of  the  most 
perfect  of  Renan's  essays,  is  that  on  Saint  Francis,  a  saint 
who  had  always  attracted  him  and  of  whose  order  he  had 
wished  to  write  the  history.^^  The  essay  is,  moreover,  a 
commentary  on  the  Life  of  Jesus,  **an  answer  to  certain 
objections."  Francis  of  Assisi  has,  for  religious  criticism, 
an  exceptional  interest.  He  is,  after  Jesus,  the  man  who 
has  had  the  most  limpid  consciousness,  the  most  absolute 
naivete,  the  liveliest  sentiment  of  his  filial  relation  to  the 
Heavenly  Father.  (P.  325.)  "Francis  of  Assisi  has  al- 
ways been  one  of  the  strongest  reasons  for  my  belief  that 
Jesus  was  very  nearly  such  as  the  synoptic  evangelists  have 
depicted  him."  (P.  326.)  Renan's  special  sympathy  with  the 
saint  is  in  the  idea  that  possession  of  worldly  goods  is  an 
imperfection,  that  it  is  nobler  to  be  poor  than  to  be  rich, 
that  we  are  to  enjoy  and  not  to  own,  that  the  finest  things 
in  life  are  indivisible.  "Where  a  man's  treasure  is,  there 
is  his  heart  also;  possession  narrows  the  soul,  makes  it  lose 
something  of  its  lightness."  Material  compensation,  more- 
over, is  never  adequate  for  spiritual  activities.     "Between 

"The  longest  of  these,  on  Benin's  Augusts,  sa  famille  et  ses  amis 
(May  10,  1868),  he  republished  with  the  title  "Les  C^sars"  in  MS- 
langes  d'histoire  et  de  voyages. 

"  It  is  easy  to  see  the  bearing  of  this  essay  on  his  own  case. 

••All  republished  in  Nov/oelles  Etudes  religieuses. 

*^Les  Apotres,  Introduction,  p.  liiL 

262 


LiTERAIlY  AND  SCflOLARLY  PRODUCTIONS 

the  things  of  the  soul  and  any  payment  whatsoever,  there  is 
such  a  disproportion  that  in  such  a  case  the  money  reward 
can  never  be  regarded  as  anything  but  alms."  Many  years 
later  Renan  humorously  compares  himself  with  the  saint. 
"Like  the  patriarch  of  Assisi,  I  have  passed  through  the 
world  without  any  serious  bond  of  attachment  to  it,  in  the 
condition  of  a  mere  tenant,  if  I  dare  say  so.  Both  of  us, 
without  having  anything  of  our  own,  have  felt  rich.  God 
gave  us  the  usufruct  of  the  universe,  and  we  have  been  con- 
tent to  enjoy  without  possession.""  And  in  the  Recollec- 
iions,  he  remarks  with  a  whimsical  smile,  which  many 
readers  have  failed  to  perceive,  ' '  I  alone  in  my  century  have 
been  able  to  understand  Jesus  and  Francis  of  Assisi"  (p. 
148),  this  being  but  another  way  of  saying  that  the  ma- 
terialistic spirit  of  the  age  is  the  reverse  of  his  own  spirit. 

In  connection  with  this  article,  Renan  in  1876  told  Grant 
Duff  the  story  of  the  Capuchin  friar  who  said  to  the  Prin- 
cess Matilde:  "He  has  done  very  bad  things,  your  friend, 
M.  Renan — verj'  bad  things ;  but  he  has  spoken  very  well  of 
Saint  Francis,  and  Saint  Francis  will  fix  all  that. ' '  ^' 

For  the  Revue  des  deux  Mondes  he  wrote  at  this  time  prac- 
tically nothing.  His  one  article  for  1865  after  his  return 
was  prepared  as  an  introduction  to  a  translation  of  a  book 
by  Kuenen.-*  The  one  for  1866  was  a  study  dating  from 
1852,^^  and  the  one  for  1868  ^^  was  a  tribute  to  his  colleague 

"N'ctwvelleg  tiudes  (1884),  Preface,  p.  iiL 

"  Memoir,  p.  87.  In  the  Introduction  to  Nouvelles  £tvd€S,  p.  iii,  the 
story  is  told  in  less  lively  form. 

•*  November  1;  "L'Ex^gese  religieuse  et  1 'esprit  frangais, "  a  re- 
view of  Hebrew  studies  in  France,  in  the  course  of  which  he  refers  to 
Bossuet  's  suppression  of  Simon  as  ' '  the  rage  of  the  rhetorician  against 
the  investigator."  Obviously  Eenan  had  his  own  case  in  mind.  The 
volume  for  which  this  introduction  was  written  was  Eecherches  his- 
toriques  et  critiques  sur  la  formation  et  la  reunion  des  livres  de  VAncien 
Testament,  published  by  Levy.  Benau  had  a  note  on  this  book  in  the 
Debats,  January  21,  1861. 

* ' '  Joachim  de  Flore  et  1  'fivangile  Eternal, ' '  July  1. 

"  The  single  general  essay  of  1867,  that  on  the  Institut  of  France 
{Questions  contemporaines)  was  written  for  the  Paris  Guide^  which 

263 


ERNEST  RENAN 

and  early  patron,  Joseph  Victor  Le  Clerc,  "the  true  Bene- 
dictine of  our  century,"  the  most  laborious,  the  most  de- 
voted, the  most  learned  collaborator,  ever  associated  with 
the  Histoire  litteraire  de  la  Ftamce.  It  was  written  as  an 
introduction  to  the  twenty-fifth  volume  of  that  collection.  ^^ 
Renan  here  gives  a  full  account  of  Le  Clerc 's  immense  con- 
tributions to  French  scholarship,  with  a  detailed  and  laud- 
atory review  of  the  results  of  his  medieval  studies.  Nor  is 
the  professor's  influence  as  Dean  of  the  Faculty  of  Letters 
overlooked,  a  post  wherein,  by  raising  the  standard  of  ex- 
aminations and  theses  for  the  doctorate,  he  had  stimulated 
erudition  in  the  University.  The  character  of  the  lonely 
scholar  is  also  presented,  without  much  incident,  but  with 
the  skillful  selection  of  just  those  particulars  that  give  life 
and  reality  to  the  portrait.  A  casual  reader  might  not  notice 
that  when,  owing  to  eye-trouble  in  1857,  Le  Clerc  doubted 
his  ability  to  continue  his  vast  study  on  the  fourteenth 
century,^*  he  selected  Renan  to  carry  on  the  work:  **He 
feared  for  a  time  that  he  could  not  finish  it,  and  made  ar- 
rangements with  the  youngest  of  his  colleagues  (this  was 
Renan)  to  the  end  that,  if  he  should  die,  the  work  should  be 
completed  in  the  same  spirit  in  which  it  had  been  previously 
composed.  "^^ 

II 

To  Renan  pure  scholarship  was  always  a  most  precious 
thing :  he  loved  the  foundations  quite  as  much  as  the  super- 
was  not  an  ordinary  guidebook  in  the  Murray  or  Baedeker  sense,  but 
two  very  stout  volumes  of  essays  about  Paris  and  things  Parisian,  con- 
tributed apparently  by  everybody  who  could  hold  a  pen,  from  Victor 
Hugo  down.  This  astonishing  publication  was  intended  for  visitors 
to  the  Erposition. 

"See  Histoire  litteraire  de  la  France,  vol.  xxv,  1869.  Renan 's  chief 
contribution  to  this  volume,  however,  was  a  thorough  study  of  the 
life  and  works  of  "Jean  Duns  Scot,  frfere  mineur,"  pp.  404-467. 

"Histoire  litteraire,  vol.  xxiv. 

*  Melanges  d'histoire  et  de  voyages,  p.  506. 

264 


LITERARY  AND  SCHOLARLY  PRODUCTIONS 

structure,  and  to  the  foundations  he  gave  the  greatest  part 
of  his  time.  In  the  country  Taine  can  get  along  with  only 
a  few  books,  but,  he  says :  ' '  Renan  and  Berthelot  for  their 
work  need,  the  one  his  laboratory  and  the  other  his  library. 
They  come  from  their  country  place  at  Sevres  every  morn- 
ing about  nine  o'clock  to  Paris,  and  shut  themselves  up  to 
work  till  six  in  the  evening"  (May  22,  1868).  A  glimpse  of 
the  library  at  Renan 's  home  is  given  by  Goncourt :  ^° 

Visit  to  Renan.  He  has  a  fourth  floor  on  the  rue  Vaneau,*'  a 
little  bourgeois  and  fresh  apartment,  furniture  in  green  velvet,  on 
the  wall  heads  by  Ary  Scheffer,  and  in  the  midst  of  some  Dunkerque 
•ware,  the  mold  of  a  delicate  woman's  hand.  Through  an  open 
door  you  perceive  the  library,  shelves  in  white  wood,  disorder  of 
big  unbound  books,  tossed  and  piled  on  the  floor,  medieval  and 
oriental  utensils  of  erudition,  all  sorts  of  quartos,  in  the  midst 
of  which  a  fascicle  of  a  Japanese  dictionary,  on  a  little  table  the 
proofs  of  Saint  Paul  slumbering,  and  through  two  windows  an  im- 
mense view,  one  of  those  forests  of  verdure  hidden  in  the  walls  and 
stone  of  Paris,  the  vast  Park  Galliera,  an  undulation  of  tops  of 
trees  overshading  the  peaks  of  ecclesiastical  buildings,  domes, 
towers,  that  give  somewhat  the  effect  of  the  horizon  of  Rome.  The 
man,  alwa5's  more  charming  and  more  affectionately  polished  as 
one  comes  to  know  him  better.  He  is  a  type  in  his  unfortunate 
physique  of  moral  grace;  in  this  apostle  of  doubt,  there  is  the 
lofty  and  intelligent  amiability  of  a  priest  of  science. 

Renan  was  an  enthusiastic  academician.  He  rarely  missed 
one  of  the  weekly  meetings,  and  the  moment  he  got  back 
from  Asia  Minor,  he  is  found  in  his  plaee.'^  In  these  years 
he  inaugurated  two  new  tasks  that  occupied  him  to  the  day 
of  his  death.  As  early  as  1864  he  suggested  to  the  Academy 
of  Inscriptions  as  a  topic  for  the  Eistoire  litteraire  de  la 
France,  the  French  rabbis  of  the  fourteenth  century,^'  and 
in  1867,  with  the  support  of  three  other  members,  he  pro- 

»  May  25,  1868,  Journal,  vol.  iii,  p.  209. 

"  SpeUed  thus  by  Goncourt,  and  others,  instead  of  ' '  Vanneau. ' ' 

••  July,  1865 ;  a  fact  noted  in  the  Bevue  archeologique  for  the  year. 

*•  Keport  of  Secretary  in  Comptes  rendus,  1864. 

265 


ERNEST  RENAN 

posed  the  publication  of  the  Corpus  Inscripiionum  Serniti- 
carum,  a  vast  undertaking  of  which  he  remained  to  the  end 
the  heart  and  soul,  and  to  which  he  devoted  intense  and 
conscientious  labor.  One  may  say  that  it  occupied  the  first 
place  in  his  life  and  preoccupations.'*  No  member,  more- 
over, was  more  frequently  before  the  Academy  to  present 
reports  and  take  part  in  the  discussions,  as  well  as  to  read 
technical  memoirs,  mostly  dealing  with  inscriptions.  One  of 
his  memoirs  of  more  general  interest,  that  on  Faustine,  which 
he  was  designated  to  read  at  the  public  meeting  of  the  In- 
stitut  held  on  August  14,  1867,  is  of  special  interest  as 
showing  how  Renau  worked  simultaneously  on  various  prob- 
lems, the  solutions  of  which  were  later  to  be  incorporated  in 
his  Origins. 

No  less  assiduous  was  his  attendance  at  the  monthly  meet- 
ings of  the  Societe  Asiatique  ^°  and,  as  these  often  fell  on  a 
Friday  evening,  he  must  at  such  times  have  devoted  the 
hours  from  eight  to  ten  to  the  discussions  here  after  a  long 
afternoon  at  the  Institut.  Assistant  secretary  and  librarian 
till  January  12,  1866,  when  he  resigned  because  his  other 
occupations  would  no  longer  permit  him  to  perform  the 
duties  of  the  office,'*  he  was  elected  secretary  for  a  term 
of  five  years  on  June  27,  1867,  when  Mohl  became  president 
in  succession  to  Reinaud.  As  secretary,  Mohl  had  been  ac- 
customed to  present  a  long,  and  not  very  lively,  annual  re- 
port on  the  progress  of  oriental  studies,  a  practice  that 
Renan  continued,  though  limiting  his  review  to  productions 

**The  proposal  was  made  January  25,  1867;  on  February  8  a  com- 
mittee of  six  was  elected  to  draw  up  a  plan,  which  was  presented  in 
detail  by  Eenan,  April  12.  See  Com,ptes  rendus  and  also  Journal 
Asiatique.    The  first  fascicle  was  issued  in  1881. 

"  Renan  must  have  belonged  to  a  number  of  other  learned  societies. 
Of  the  Soci6te  des  Antiquaires  he  was  first  vice-president  in  1863  and 
president  in  1864.  See  Bevue  archSologique  for  January  in  these 
years. 

"•He  had  been  elected  member  of  the  editorial  committee  for  the 
Journal,  July  14,  1865. 

266 


POLITICAL  CAMPAIGN 

by  members.  Into  this  arid  task,  however,  he  introduced  a 
new  spirit  and  a  new  style.  The  artist  supports  the  scholar, 
and  large  views  flash  out  amid  dry  details.  In  matters  be- 
yond his  own  competency,  he  calls  upon  all  the  specialists  of 
the  society  to  aid  him,  so  as  to  give  scientific  value  to  his 
judgments.  Nor  is  sentiment  excluded  from  these  annals. 
In  that  part  of  his  first  report  (July  9,  1868)  in  which  he 
chronicles  the  deaths  of  eminent  scholars,  his  appreciation 
of  Bopp  is  followed  by  a  loyal  tribute  to  his  old  teacher,  the 
Abbe  Le  Hir,'^  and  he  concludes  the  general  review  with  a 
passage  on  philology  closely  modeled  on  one  in  The  Future 
of  Science." 

For  the  next  year  (June  28,  1869)  the  secretary's  report 
is  not  a  report  at  all.  Instead  of  reviewing  oriental  studies, 
it  merely  refers  to  the  dangers  of  restricted  specialization, 
approves  the  division  of  labor  in  research,  but  not  the  isola- 
tion of  workers,  and  points  out  that  each  branch  of  science, 
which  develops  apart  without  regard  to  the  others,  becomes 
narrow  and  egotistical  and  loses  the  lofty  idea  of  its  mis- 
sion. In  excuse  for  the  brevity  and  incompleteness  of  this 
document,  Renan  explains,  what  all  his  hearers  knew,  that 
"particular  and  unexpected  affairs  have  in  the  last  few 
weeks  absorbed  almost  all  my  activities." 

m 

These  "particular  and  unexpected  affairs"  were  his  ex- 
ertions in  his  campaign  for  a  seat  in  the  Corps  Legislatif 
from  the  second  district  of  Seine-et-Mame,  a  compaign 
which  ended  June  6  in  his  defeat.    In  the  autumn  of  1863 

"A  further  instance  of  Kenan's  loyalty  is  furnished  by  Ollivier. 
When  he  spoke  to  Renan  about  becoming  a  candidate  for  the  Academy, 
Benan  answered :  ' '  Yes,  provided  that  it  does  not  involve  a  contest 
with  Mgr.  Dupanloup,  to  which  I  would  not  consent,  for  I  can  never 
forget  the  favors  he  has  done  me."    L'Empire  liberal,  voL  vi,  p.  347. 

*•  This  report  covers  pp.  11-164  of  the  Journal. 

267 


ERNEST  RENAN 

Renan  had  had  an  impulse  to  go  hefore  the  electorate  for 
Bome  district  of  Paris,  as  a  protest  against  the  suspension 
of  his  Hebrew  course,'®  but  nothing  came  of  these  aspira- 
tions. 

Several  times  he  had  been  attacked  in  the  Senate.  On 
March  18,  1864,  Mgr.  de  Bonnechose  had  demanded  his 
prosecution  for  blasphemy  in  the  Life  of  Jesus  but,  after  a 
defense  of  liberty  of  thought  by  Delangle,  who  spoke  from 
a  legal  point  of  view,  the  order  of  the  day  was  voted.*"  The 
government  had  doubtless  learned  a  lesson  from  the  fruit- 
less prosecution  of  Flaubert  in  1857  for  Madame  Bovary. 

Three  years  later  a  scene  occurred  in  the  Senate  which 
does  not  give  a  favorable  impression  of  the  parliamentary 
procedure  of  the  body.*^  The  Comte  de  Segur  d  'Agnesseau, 
a  tedious  and  inconsequential  speaker,  whose  attempts  to 
address  the  house  were  apt  to  provoke  cries  of  ''Cloture, 
Cloture!"  delivered  a  lengthy  tirade,  nominally  on  a  law 
concerning  primary  instruction,  but  really  wandering 
around  amid  all  the  grievances  over  which  he  had  been 
brooding.  Without  any  relevance,  he  turned  to  Rouland, 
ex-minister  of  public  instruction,  saying:  "His  conscience 
will  always  feel  remorse  for  having  made  a  certain  nomina- 
tion that  caused  a  great  scandal."  "I  protest,"  shouted 
Sainte-Beuve,  "against  personal  imputations  that  have 
nothing  to  do  with  the  question  and  that  involve  honorable 
men."  "Don't  interrupt,  M.  Sainte-Beuve,"  said  the  pres- 
ident. "If  he  refers  to  M.  Renan,"  continued  Sainte-Beuve, 
"I  protest  against  an  accusation  that  assails  a  man  of  con- 
viction and  talent,  whose  friend  I  have  the  honor  to  be." 
And  the  storm  burst:  "Atheism,  irreligion,  immorality, 
social  conflagration ! ' '    But  Sainte-Beuve  went  on :    "  There 


"See  Bertholet  correspondence. 
*•  OUivier,  L  'Empire  liberal,  vol.  vi,  496. 

*^  Momtewr,   March    30,    1867.     Also   Sainte-Beuve,   Fremiers   Lun- 
dis,  III. 

268 


POLITICAL  CAMPAIGN 

are  honorable  and  respectable  philosophical  opinions  that  1 
defend  in  the  name  of  liberty  of  thought  and  will  not  allow 
to  be  attacked  and  calumniated  without  protest."  "You  are 
not  here  for  that,"  howled  Lacaze;  and  another,  ** Every 
honest  person  protests  against  such  words";  and  still  an- 
other, "It  is  the  first  time  atheism  has  found  a  defender 
here. ' '  The  quarrel  was  closed  by  Marshal  Canrobert :  *  *  One 
cannot  in  this  assembly  make  an  apology  for  him  who  has 
denied  the  divinity  of  Jesus  Christ  and  set  himself  as  the 
bitter  enemy  of  the  religion  of  our  fathers,  which  is  still 
that  of  the  great  majority  of  the  French,  As  for  myself, 
in  allowing  each  the  liberty  of  appreciating  from  his  own 
point  of  view  the  book  of  this  writer,  I  protest  formally 
against  the  doctrines  there  set  forth  and  I  am  persuaded 
that  my  voice  will  have  many  echoes  here."  (Prolonged 
approbation.)  *^ 

On  June  25  Sainte-Beuve  made  his  first  speech  in  the 
Senate,  the  topic  being  a  petition  to  exclude  from  a  pro- 
vincial library  certain  books,  among  which  were  works  by 
Voltaire,  Rousseau,  Michelet,  Renan,  and  George  Sand.  Of 
the  two  last  he  said,  amid  much  disorder:  "The  Emperor 
honors  M.  Renan  with  his  esteem,  as  he  honors  George  Sand 
with  his  friendship."" 

These  incidents  are  characteristic  of  the  intolerance 
against  which  the  friends  of  liberty  were  contending,  and 
measure  the  extent  of  their  ultimate  victory.  The  clerical 
leaders  and  particularly  the  clerical  press  seemed  always 
to  have  a  chip  on  the  shoulder.  In  1868  Sainte-Beuve  in- 
vited the  Prince  Napoleon  to  dine  at  his  house  and  the 
Prince  selected  Friday,  April  10.  Among  the  guests  was 
Renan.**    It  happened  that  April  10  was  Good  Friday,  and 

**  M^rimee  's  correspondence  abounds  in  remarks  about  the  old  gener- 
als in  the  Senate  who  trembled  in  fear  for  the  future  of  their  souls. 

"  Moniteur,  June  26,  1867,    Also  Premiers  Lundis,  III. 

**  It  was  of  course  tie  Prince  who  designated  what  guests  should  he 
invited.    See  Sainte-Beuve 'a  invitation  to  Eenan,  AprU  6,  1868. 

269 


ERNEST  RENAN 

a  howl  went  up  that  an  orgy  had  been  held  on  purpose  to 
desecrate  the  holy  day.  It  was,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  no  orgy, 
but  a  very  good  dinner,  with  good  wines,  and,  we  may  be 
sure,  an  abundance  of  good  talk.*'^ 

Anticlerical  Renan  certainly  was,  though  by  no  means  an 
extremist.  A  gradual  separation  of  Church  and  State  with 
full  recognition  of  the  interests  of  the  clergy  and  their  flocks 
and  with  no  violation  of  their  material  and  property  rights 
— such  was  his  program.  He  foresaw  schisms  that  have  not 
come  to  pass,  but  he  also  foresaw  a  time  when  the  majority 
of  believers  would,  by  sacrificing  the  letter  to  the  spirit, 
bring  about  universal  toleration.  "Let  us  remain  in  our 
respective  Churches,  profiting  by  their  antique  worship  and 
their  tradition  of  virtue,  participating  in  their  good  works 
and  enjoying  the  poetry  of  their  past."  *®  But  the  present 
will  assert  its  rights.  "Two  things  are  evident:  the  first 
is  that  modern  civilization  does  not  desire  that  the  old 
forms  of  worship  should  wholly  die;  the  second  is  that  it 
will  not  permit  itself  to  be  hindered  in  its  task  by  ancient 
religious  institutions. ' '  *^ 

All  of  Renan 's  reflections  on  public  affairs  were  collected 
from  periodicals  and  pamphlets  and  given  to  the  world  in 
Contemporary  Questions}^  The  main  body  of  the  book  is 
made  up  of  essays  dealing  with  higher  education,  the  In- 
stitut,  the  College  de  France  and  its  professors,  and  the 
professorship  of  Hebrew.  These  are  followed  by  three  es- 
says on  religion  and  the  Church,  of  which  two  are  taken  from 
La  LiberiS  de  Penser.  (See  ante,  pp.  76,  81.)  The  first  essay 
in  the  volume  is  on  "  The  Philosophy  of  Contemporary  His- 
tory"   (see  p.   191),  and  the  last  on  "The  Theology  of 

*^8ee  the  account,  including  the  menu  in  Sainte-Beuve,  Souvenirs  et 
indiscretions,  p.  209  et  aeq. 

**  Les  Apotres,  p.  Iviii. 

*'Ibid.,  p.  Ix. 

"Notice  in  the  Bihats,  March  4,  1868,  with  about  three  columns 
quoted  from  the  preface. 

270 


POLITICAL  CAMPAIGN 

Beranger."  (See  p.  199.)  As  usual  the  preface  is  one  of 
the  most  interesting  of  the  disquisitions. 

Renan  insists  on  the  necessity  of  higher  education,  not 
only  for  culture  and  progress,  but  also  as  the  source  even 
of  primary  teaching.  "The  instruction  of  the  populace  is 
an  effect  of  the  higher  culture  of  certain  classes.  Countries 
that,  like  the  United  States,  have  founded  a  considerable 
popular  education  without  serious  higher  instruction,  will 
long  expiate  this  error  by  their  intellectual  mediocrity,  their 
grossness  of  manners,  their  superficial  spirit,  and  their  lack 
of  general  intelligence."  (P.  viii.)  "It  is  said  that  the 
victor  at  Sadowa  was  the  primary  teacher.  No;  the  victor 
at  Sadowa  was  German  science,  German  virtue,  Protestant- 
ism, philosophy,  Luther,  Kant,  Fichte,  Hegel, ' '  **  War  has 
become  a  scientific  and  moral  problem.  "The  final  victory 
will  lie  with  the  people  the  most  highly  educated  and  the 
most  moral,  by  morality  meaning  the  capacity  for  sacrifice 
and  the  love  of  duty."  (P.  xxiii.) 

From  Orsay  Taine  wrote.  May  22,  1868:  "Renan  is 
pessimistic  about  France  and  politics";  but  this  pessimism 
was  not  occasioned  by  the  shadow  of  war,  though  the  chau- 
vinism of  the  reactionary  party  might  give  rise  to  some  ap- 
prehension. It  was  internal  troubles  that  Renan  foresaw. 
"Our  youth  beheld  sad  days,"  he  says  in  the  dedication  of 
Saint  Paul,  "and  I  fear  that  fate  reserves  for  us  nothing 
good  before  we  die.  Certain  enormous  errors  drag  our  coun- 
try toward  the  abyss;  the  persons  to  whom  these  errors  are 
pointed  out  only  smile."  The  nightmare  that  oppressed 
the  philosophic  observer  was  factional  violence  leading  to 
revolution. 

French  history  to  Renan 's  view  presented  the  conflict  be- 

•  In  "La  Part  de  la  f amille  et  de  1  '6tat, ' '  La  Beforme  intellectueUe 
et  morale,  p.  310,  he  said:  "  It  is  said  that  the  victory  of  Sadowa  was 
the  victory  of  the  primary  school-teacher;  that  is  true,  gentlemen," 
But  here  be  was  addressing  a  particular  educational  society. 

271 


ERNEST  RENAN 

tween  Roman  centralization  and  Teutonic  autonomy,  with 
a  dynasty  belonging  to  the  nation,  and  an  aristocracy  both 
possessed  of  hereditary  rights  and  burdened  with  hereditary 
duties.  Centralization  triumphed  under  Louis  XIV  and 
led  inevitably  to  the  Revolution.  **  Always  great,  sometimes 
sublime,  the  Revolution  is  an  experiment  highly  honorable 
to  the  people  that  dared  attempt  it ;  but  it  is  an  experiment 
that  failed. ' '  The  State  remained  tyrannically  supreme,  the 
head  of  a  centralized  administration,  while  Paris  gathered 
all  the  intellect  of  France,  leaving  the  provinces  a  spiritual 
desert.  In  place  of  an  aristocracy,  the  only  inequality  was 
that  of  wealth,  and  property  was  not  treated  as  a  moral 
thing,  involving  duties,  but  as  a  mere  source  of  enjojonent. 
Meanwhile  there  were  no  colonies  to  which  socialists  could 
resort  for  their  experiments.  The  result  was  unrest  and 
frequent  revolutions.  The  overthrow  of  the  dynasty  in 
1830  introduced  a  new  element  of  discord.  France  was  di- 
vided into  four  factions.  Legitimists,  Orleanists,  Bonapart- 
ists,  and  Republicans,  leaving  always  three  against  any  gov- 
ernment that  might  be  established,  so  that  at  a  given  moment 
the  nation  exerted  only  a  fourth  of  its  strength.  If  the 
radical  republicans  win,  it  leads  to  reaction,  as  in  1848, 
revolt  inducing  suppression  and  suppression  inducing  re- 
volt. "In  the  fatal  circle  of  revolutions,  abyss  summons 
abyss." 

The  ideal  would  be  a  constitutional  monarchy  with  strict 
legality  in  descent  and,  as  a  restraint,  a  body  of  nobles 
who,  standing  for  their  own  rights  against  the  crown,  would 
thus  insure  the  liberty  of  all,  as  they  had  done  in  England. 
As  this  ideal  was  impossible  of  realization,  Renan  proposed 
to  accept  the  Empire,  on  the  ground  that  a  government 
strong  enough  to  maintain  itself  becomes  in  the  course  of 
years  legitimate.  Since  1859  the  Emperor's  personal  views 
had  inclined  toward  liberalism,  and  for  a  little  good,  Renan 
was  willing  to  forget  much  evil. 

272 


POLITICAL  CAMPAIGN 

It  was  with  such  ideas  that  he  entered  the  electoral  cam- 
paign of  1869  for  a  seat  in  the  Corps  Legislatif.'°  In  a 
letter  of  March  7,  M,  Paul  Cere  of  Meaux,  a  former  prefect 
and  the  editor  of  a  local  journal,  L' Empire  liberal,  sug- 
gested his  candidacy  to  represent  the  Third  Party,  that  is 
the  party  that  accepted  the  Bonaparte  dynasty,  provided  that 
it  should  transform  itself  into  a  constitutional  monarchy. 
There  were  already  in  the  field  Paul  de  Jouvencel,  radical ; 
de  Jaucourt,  official;  the  Comte  de  Moustier,  clerical;  the 
Comte  de  Lafayette,  who  later  withdrew;  Jeoffroy  and  the 
Baron  d'Avernes,  who  did  not  have  much  of  a  following. 
In  order  to  feel  out  his  constituency,  Renan  applied  to  the 
authorities  for  permission  to  repeat  a  lecture  on  "The  Part 
of  the  Family  and  of  the  State  in  Education, ' '  ^^  given  on 
April  19  in  Paris,  and  when  this  permission  was  refused, 
he  nevertheless  proceeded  to  deliver  it  on  the  evening  of 
April  26  as  a  political  speech.  Encouraged  by  his  success, 
he  spoke  again  on  April  29  at  Lagny  on  "The  Services  of 
Science  to  the  People.  "^^  This  address  was  so  warmly  re- 
ceived that  he  no  longer  hesitated  to  announce  his  candi- 
dacy, for  though  victory  appeared  doubtful,  it  did  not  seem 
at  all  impossible.  At  any  rate,  here  was  a  call  of  duty  to 
which  he  felt  obliged  to  sacrifice  his  tastes  and  his  comfort.*' 

Renan 's  first  circular,  which  appeared  May  6,  presented 

"See  Gaston  Strauss,  La  politique  de  Benan,  p.  289  et  seq.,  Bersot 
et  ses  amis,  and  the  Debats,  May  9,  17,  18,  22,  23,  26,  June  5  and  9, 
1869. 

"Published  in  the  Debats,  also  separately  as  a  pamphlet,  L6vy,  31 
pp.,  1869.  The  most  vital  point  in  the  address  is  that  instruction 
should  be  provided  by  the  State,  but  that  education  should  be  given  in 
the  family,  and  especially  by  the  women.  As  usual  Benan 's  experience 
governs  his  views:  seminary  versus  mother  and  sister. 

^'  MSlanges  religieux  et  historiques.  The  lecture  on  "Turgot, "  for 
which  an  admission  fee  was  charged,  was  given  in  aid  of  a  widow 
whose  husband  had  lost  his  life  in  trying  to  save  one  of  his  workmen. 

"The  preface  of  Questions  contemporaines  opens  with  the  words: 
"A  serious  man  will  not  mingle  actively  in  the  affairs  of  his  times 
unless  he  is  called  either  by  birth  or  by  the  spontaneous  demand  of  his 
fellow  citizens." 

273 


ERNEST  RENAN 

a  program  under  four  heads — no  revolution,  no  war,  prog- 
ress, liberty.  A  new  revolution  would  not  only  hinder  ma- 
terial progress,  but  prepare  a  worse  reaction  than  that 
which  followed  1848.  The  country  can  realize  its  reforms 
and  execute  its  own  will.  War  is  as  bad  as  revolution;  it 
arrests  progress,  leaves  the  destiny  of  the  country  to  chance, 
and  leads  to  exhaustion.  A  reduction  of  military  forces  is 
favored  and  distant  expeditions  are  condemned;  the  imme- 
diate evacuation  of  Rome  is  demanded.  Progress  includes  a 
vigorous  control  of  the  budget,  publicity,  reduction  of  un- 
productive expenditures,  development  of  public  education, 
a  more  equitable  distribution  of  taxes  so  that  incomes  should 
bear  their  share  as  well  as  land.  There  should  also  be  the 
greatest  possible  extension  of  liberty  of  the  press,  of  public 
meetings,  of  association,  of  religion,  and  at  some  future  time 
equitable  arrangements  should  be  made  for  the  separation 
of  Church  and  State.  Renan's  draft  was  much  more  ex- 
pansive in  the  wording  than  his  published  circular,  but  it 
was  doubtless  blue-penciled  by  his  political  advisers.^* 

Very  active  in  visits  to  constituents  and  in  attendance  at 
public  meetings,  the  candidate  underwent  the  usual  attacks 
and  slanders,  the  most  effective  of  which  was  that,  since  he 
was  a  personal  friend  of  Prince  Napoleon  and  had  received 
appointments  from  the  Emperor,  he  was  a  veiled  imperialist 
running  on  purpose  to  divide  the  opposition  vote.  When 
his  supporter,  L' Empire  liberal,  returned  these  slanders  in 
kind,  Renan  wrote  to  the  editor  begging  him  to  avoid  per- 
sonalities in  his  behalf.  "I  have  accepted  the  candidacy," 
he  says,  ''only  from  a  sense  of  duty  and  because  I  did  not 
wish  it  to  be  said  that  I  shrank  from  the  conditions  of 
public  life." 

In  Paris  his  candidacy  was  supported  by  Nefftzer  in  the 
Temps  and  by  Bersot  in  the  Dehats.    To  the  latter  he  wrote 

**  The  circular  was  reprinted  in  the  DSbats,  M&j  9, 

274 


POLITICAL  CAMPAIGN 

the  outline  of  an  article  (May  14)  in  which  he  said:  "If 
M.  R^nan  should  some  day  become  the  representative  of  the 
liberal  spirit  as  it  is  understood  in  the  provinces,  in  opposi- 
tion to  the  radical  spirit  of  Paris,  we  should  not  be  much 
surprised."  Some  of  this  matter  Bersot  employed  in  two 
editorials  on  the  front  page  (May  17  and  18),  adding  that 
the  second  district  of  Seine-et-Mame,  which  had  sent  to 
the  Chamber  Lafayette  and  Portalis,  now  had  the  oppor- 
tunity of  sending  ]\L  Renan,  one  of  the  most  distinguished 
men  of  our  time,  and  that,  while  various  parties  had  com- 
plaints against  him,  the  party  that  had  none  at  all  was  the 
party  of  liberty. 

In  a  final  circular  of  May  19,  Renan  maintained  that  the 
future  belongs  to  what  used  to  be  called  the  Left  Center, 
now  the  Third  Party,  representing  the  moderate  opinion 
of  France.  "In  voting  thus,  you  do  not  make  a  threat, 
nor  perform  an  act  of  complaisance;  you  do  not,  as  they 
say,  give  the  government  a  lesson,  nor  do  you  approve  the 
conduct  of  the  government.  You  perform  an  act  of  free 
citizenship;  you  declare  that  you  wish  at  once  respect  and 
control,  order  and  liberty,  conservatism  and  progress." 

The  first  ballot,  cast  on  May  23  and  24,  resulted  as  fol- 
lo\TO :" 

de  Jouvencel,  8650 

de  Jaucourt,  6621 

Renan,  6010 

de  Moustier,  4097 

Jeoffroy,  1654 

d  'Avernes,  524 

By  his  friends  Renan  was  now  advised  to  withdraw,  and 
at  the  same  time  he  was  threatened  by  his  enemies.  With 
characteristic  obstinacy,  he  stuck  to  his  guns  and  went  into 
the  second  contest.    In  his  address  to  the  electors  he  repeats 

**Dibats,  May  26. 

275 


ERNEST  RENAN 

his  pro-am,  maintains  that  he  is  a  liberal,  a  moderate,  and 
not  semiofficial  as  had  been  said,  and  explains  that  he  stands 
anew  because  de  Jouvencel  had  refused  to  agree  with  his 
early  offer  that  the  liberal  candidate  having  the  fewer  votes 
should  withdraw.  On  the  second  ballot,  on  June  6,  only 
876  new  votes  went  to  Renan,  while,  as  was  to  be  expected, 
the  thousands  were  cast  for  the  official  candidate  and  the 
radical.    The  Dehats  for  June  9  reports : 


de  Jouvencel, 

10484 

de  Jaucourt, 

9167 

Renan, 

6886 

Easily  consoled  for  his  own  defeat,  perhaps  even  glad 
of  it,  Renan  was  yet  saddened  by  the  general  results  of  the 
election.  Moderation  was  thrown  to  the  winds.  On  one 
side  were  the  reactionaries;  on  the  other,  the  exalted  radi- 
cals, whose  election  promises  urged  them  toward  violence 
and  revolution.  Renan  was  haunted  even  more  strongly 
than  before  with  the  premonition  of  evil  days  to  come,  "I 
become  a  sort  of  poor  Cassandra,"  he  writes,  "may  I  prove 
a  bad  prophet ! "  °®  On  the  same  day  on  which  he  wrote 
these  words,  there  appeared  in  the  Revue  des  deux  Mondes 
his  article  ' '  Constitutional  Monarchy  in  France, ' '  ^^  re- 
printed as  a  little  brochure,^^  which  immediately  went  into 
a  second  edition.  Here,  with  great  moderation  but  with 
great  boldness,  he  condemns  both  the  Revolution  of  '48  and 
the  Coup  d'fitat  as  crimes,  although,  still  maintaining  the 
principles  of  the  Third  Party,  he  looks  forward  to  Napoleon 
as  a  constitutional  monarch  whose  function  it  will  be,  less 
to  continue,  than  to  correct,  the  Revolution.  The  Revolu- 
tion, indeed,  he  says,  and  here  he  speaks  like  Edmund  Burke, 
proceeded  philosophically  in  an  affair  in  which  it  should 

"To  Berthelot,  November  1,  1869. 
"La  Eeforme  intellectuelle  et  morale. 
"Michel  L6vj  FrSres,  1870. 

276 


POLITICAL  CAMPAIGN 

have  proceeded  historically.  A  republic  he  does  not  believe 
possible,  as  monarchy  answers  the  deepest  needs  of  France. 
The  radicals  can  prevent  liberal  government  by  provoking 
repression,  but  they  cannot  establish  a  stable  state.  Social 
democratic  theories,  indeed,  inevitably  make  a  state  feeble. 
They  involve  political  materialism,  the  idea  of  each  for  him- 
self, whereas  a  great  nation  demands  sacrifices,  each  in  his 
own  sphere  doing  his  part  toward  the  accomplishment  of 
the  divine  aim  of  humanity.  **  Looking  only  at  the  rights 
of  individuals,  it  is  unjust  that  one  man  should  be  sacrificed 
for  another;  but  it  is  not  unjust  that  all  should  be  subjected 
to  the  higher  task  accomplished  by  humanity." 

He  felt  that  the  political  preponderance  of  Paris  must 
cease.  "No  one  more  than  I  admires  and  loves  this  extra- 
ordinary center  of  life  and  thought  called  Paris.  Disease, 
if  you  please,  but  disease  in  the  nature  of  the  pearl,  precious 
and  exquisite  hypertrophy,  Paris  is  the  raison-d'etre  of 
France.  Source  of  light  and  heat,  I  willingly  allow  that  it 
may  be  called  also  source  of  moral  decomposition,  provided 
you  will  admit  that  on  this  dungheap  spring  charming 
flowers,  some  even  of  the  rarest.  It  is  the  glory  of  France 
to  be  able  to  support  this  prodigious  permanent  exhibition 
of  her  most  excellent  products ;  but  we  must  not  dissimulate 
at  what  a  price  this  marvelous  result  is  obtained. ' ' 

The  conclusion  of  the  essay  breathes  the  purest  patriotism : 
"France  can  do  everything  but  be  mediocre.  What  she 
suffers,  after  all,  she  suffers  for  having  dared  too  greatly 
against  the  gods.  Whatever  ills  the  future  holds  in  reserve 
for  her,  even  if  her  lot  should  arouse  the  pity  of  the  world, 
the  world  will  not  forget  that  she  made  audacious  experi- 
ments for  the  profit  of  all,  that  she  loved  justice  even  to 
the  limit  of  folly,  and  that  her  crime,  if  it  be  a  crime,  was 
to  have  admitted  with  glorious  imprudence  the  possibility 
of  an  ideal  that  the  wretchedness  of  humanity  will  not  al- 
low." 

277 


ERNEST  RENAN 

IV 

If  Renan's  love  of  France  filled  him  with  disquietude,  his 
love  of  learning  brought  him  peace,  "I  go  to  Paris  every 
day,"  he  wrote  to  Berthelot  from  Sevres  (November  1, 
1869),  "working  with  all  my  might  to  complete  my  Mission. 
I  shall  absolutely  finish  the  manuscript  by  January  1." 
Moreover,  he  was  honored  by  his  associates  in  the  Academy 
of  Inscriptions  et  Belles-Lettres,  On  January  7,  1870, 
having  been  vice  president  for  a  year,  he  was  elected  pres- 
ident by  thirty  votes  out  of  thirty-three.°®  The  reparation 
of  a  wrong,  too,  seemed  imminent.  On  Friday,  March  18, 
a  letter  from  the  Minister  of  Public  Instruction  was  read 
asking  the  Academy  to  designate  two  candidates  for  the  va- 
cant chair  of  Hebrew  at  the  College  de  France.  At  the  next 
meeting,  Renan  and  Derenbourg  presented  themselves  for 
selection  in  writing,  neither  being  present,  and  Renan  was 
named  first  choice  by  thirty  votes  out  of  thirty-four,  while 
Derenbourg  was  named  second  choice  with  thirty-one  votes, 
the  same  recommendation  being  also  made  by  the  College 
de  France.  Munk  had  died  February  6,  1867,  but  natu- 
rally, with  the  assurance  of  Renan's  nomination,  no  demand 
for  candidates  had  been  made  so  long  as  Duruy  remained 
minister.  Since  January  2  Renan's  friend  Ollivier  was  at 
the  head  of  affairs,  with  Segris  as  Minister  of  Public  Instruc- 
tion, and  the  occasion  gave  rise  to  the  hope  that  the  new  lib- 
eralism of  the  Emperor  would  permit  the  reappointment  of 
the  expelled  professor.  At  any  rate,  such  was  Renan's  expec- 
tation. **It  seems  certain,"  says  the  Revue  archeolagique 
(April,  1870,  p.  278),  "that  M.  Renan  will  soon  be  restored 
to  his  chair. "  *°    At  Easter,  when  Grant  Duff  took  Sir  John 


"Comptes  rendus,  1870. 

"  The  Empress,  however,  was  still,  as  might  be  surmised,  irrecon- 
cilable.    On  August  15,  1870,  while  Eegent,  she  with  her  own  hand 

278 


POLITICAL  CAMPAIGN 

Lubbock  to  see  him,  he  said:  "I  shall  begin  my  lectures 
as  Luis  de  Leon  did,  when  he  resumed  his,  after  having  been 
silenced  for  years  by  the  Inquisition,  with  the  words,  *As  I 
was  observing  at  our  last  meeting/  "  ^^ 

War  was  not  yet  in  the  mind  of  any  one.  On  January 
25,  1870,  Taine  and  Renan  signed  a  letter  in  the  Dehats 
urging  subscriptions  to  a  monument  to  be  erected  by  the 
Philosophical  Society  of  Berlin  to  Hegel,  who  "remains,  in 
spite  of  what  is  hazardous  and  incomplete  in  his  work,  the 
first  thinker  of  the  nineteenth  century."  On  March  18, 
furthermore,  it  was  reported  to  the  Academy  of  Inscrip- 
tions that  certain  army  officers  had  been  assigned  to  make 
a  map  of  Palestine,  completing  the  work  done  by  the  Mission 
in  Syria  in  1860-1861.  Thus,  without  a  dream  of  the  im- 
pending catastrophe,  Renan  joined  the  Prince  Napoleon  on 
a  yachting  trip  to  Norway,  a  land  he  had  long  desired  to 
visit,  since  it  was  attached  to  the  memories  of  his  childhood, 
the  legends  of  the  Breton  race,  the  dreams  of  his  imagina- 
tion.*2  The  Irish  in  his  opinion  had  reached  Iceland  before 
the  Northmen.^^  A  letter  to  Berthelot  from  Storen  tells 
of  his  delight  in  Inverness,  which  he  had  visited,  and  in 
the  Norse  fiords  and  the  Scandinavian  Alps  with  their  cas- 
cades and  pines.  He  wishes  for  his  friend :  ' '  Why  are  you 
not  here!  I  am  so  used  to  doing  my  thinking  in  company 
with  you  that  every  impression  not  shared  with  you  seems 
incomplete."  The  Prince  he  finds  charming:  "He  has  en- 
tirely unexpected  sides,  a  thirst  for  the  unknown,  a  desire 
for  the  infinite,  something  romantic  and  profound,  that  is 
not  apparent  in  Paris."    The  party  is  inclined  to  continue 

crossed  off  Kenan's  name  from  a  list  presented  by  the  Minister  of 
Public  Instruction,  Maurice  Richard,  for  the  grade  of  officer  in  the 
Legion  d'Honneur.  The  document  is  still  in  the  archives,  Ren6  d'Ya, 
p.  219. 

'^Memoir,  p.  79. 

"•  Cornelie  Renan  to  Bersot,  July  6,  1870 :  Bersot  et  sea  amis,  p.  252. 

"Grant  Duff,  p.  53. 

279 


ERNEST  RENAN 

to  Spitzbergen  and  Lapland.  On  July  19  war  was  declared. 
A  telegram  called  the  Prince  home  from  Tromso,  and  on  July 
22  Renan  was  again  presiding  over  a  meeting  of  the  Acad- 
emy of  Inscriptions. 


CHAPTER  IX 

FRANCO-PRUSSIAN  WAR  J  CONTINUED  PRODUCTIVITY;  FRENCH  ACADEMY 

(1870-1879) 

During  the  siege,  Renan,  very  much  distressed,  remained  in 
Paris,  and  presented  his  ideas  on  the  situation  in  the  Debats  and 
the  Revne  d^s  deux  Mondes.  The  exchange  of  open  letters  with 
David  Friedrich  Strauss  was  part  of  this  propaganda.  He  stood 
in  the  elections  of  1871,  but  again  failed.  In  the  fall  of  this 
year,  he  published  Intellectual  and  Moral  Reform,  a  volume  of 
political  tracts.  During  the  Commune,  he  took  refuge  at  Ver- 
sailles, where  he  composed  his  Philosophical  Dialogues,  not  pub- 
lished till  1876.  In  the  meanwhile  (November  17,  1870)  he  had 
been  reinstated  in  his  chair  of  Hebrew  at  the  College  de  France, 
and  he  continued  to  busy  himself  with  the  Histoire  litteraire  de  la 
France  and  the  Corpus,  joining  also  (1873)  the  Journal  des  Sa- 
vants. His  annual  reports  as  secretary  of  the  Societe  Asiatique 
were  eagerly  received.  A  committee  on  higher  education  also 
occupied  his  attention.  His  autumns  were  mostly  spent  in  Italy. 
The  Antichrist  appeared  in  June,  1873,  and  various  comparatively 
unimportant  essays  were  contributed  from  time  to  time  to  periodi- 
cals. Rheumatism  began  more  and  more  to  disable  him,  and  he 
sought  relief  at  Ischia,  where  he  began  his  Philosophical  Dramas. 
1876  was  the  year  of  a  Sicilian  trip  and  1877  that  of  a  great 
speech  on  the  unveiling  of  the  Spinoza  monument  at  the  Hague. 
The  publication  of  Recollections  of  Childhood  and  Youth  was 
begun  in  the  Revue  des  deux  Mondes  in  1876.  The  Gospels  was 
published  in  1877,  Miscellanies  of  History  and  Travel  and  Caliban 
in  1878.  On  June  13,  1878,  Renan  was  elected  to  the  French 
Academy,  into  which  he  was  received  at  a  notable  session  the  next 
AprU. 


The  Franco-Prussian  war  was  a  crushing  blow  to  Kenan's 
international   idealism.     Germany,  as  he   repeatedly   con- 

281 


ERNEST  RENAN 

fesses,  had  been  his  intellectual  and  moral  foster  mother. 
Of  her  he  had  constructed  an  image  of  uprightness,  philo- 
sophic liberalism  and  devotion  to  lofty  moral  principles, 
to  which  the  reality  did  not  correspond.  He  had  looked 
forward  to  an  intellectual,  and  perhaps  political,  alliance  of 
France,  Germany  and  England  to  hold  in  check  the  Slavic 
hordes,  which  he  regarded  as  a  possible  menace  to  European 
civilization.  And  now  it  was  German  brutality  before  which 
that  civilization  trembled.  Nor  did  his  condemnation  spare 
the  frivolous  rulers  and  superficial  patriots  of  his  own 
country.  Meeting  Brandes  on  the  street,^  he  burst  into 
a  violent  denunciation  of  the  politicians  responsible  for  the 
war  and  parted  from  his  Danish  acquaintance  with  tears  in 
his  eyes.  To  others,  referring  to  his  defeat  at  the  polls,  he 
said :  *  *  They  might  have  torn  me  in  pieces  from  the  tribune, 
but  they  would  not  have  declared  war  before  I  had  told 
them  the  whole  truth. ' '  ^  And  on  August  19,  he  wrote  from 
Sevres  to  Grant  Duff :  *  *  What  an  access  of  insanity !  What 
a  crime!  The  greatest  heart-pain  I  have  ever  felt  in  my 
life  was  when  at  Tromso  we  received  the  fatal  telegram  in- 
forming us  that  war  was  certain  and  would  be  immediate. ' ' ' 
Renan  was,  indeed,  a  better  patriot  than  those  who  refused 
to  see  and  those  who  were  incapable  of  thought.  The  crowd 
at  Brebant's  *  mocked  him  and  howled  him  down,  to  the  great 
satisfaction  of  the  inert  and  shallow  Goncourt,  who  grew 
sentimental  over  the  woes  of  France,  but  never  raised  a  help- 
ful finger  or  uttered  a  stirring  or  a  useful  word.  When 
Renan  retires  from  the  window  in  disgust  over  the  acclama- 
tions of  the  crowd  at  the  passage  of  a  troop,  and  remarks 
contemptuously,  **Not  a  man  there  is  capable  of  an  act  of 


*  August  12,  Modeme  Geister,  p.  88  6t  seq. 

"  Darmesteter,  Eevue  Bleue,  October  21,  1893,  p,  523. 
'Memoir,  p.  81. 

*  After  the  death  of  Sainte-Beuve  the  Magny  diners  transferred  their 
meetings  to  the  Bestauraat  Brabant. 

282 


FRANCO-PRUSSIAN  WAR 

virtue ; "  '  and  when,  after  proclaiming  the  superiority  of 
the  Germans  (September  6),  he  cries  out  against  revenge: 
"No,  rather  let  France  perish;  above  country  there  is  the 
kingdom  of  duty,  of  reason,"  he  is  giving  momentary  vent 
to  passion  over  the  broken  ideals  of  a  lifetime,  an  explo- 
sion which  is  in  no  sense  inconsistent  with  the  most  ardent 
love  of  country,  Renan  was,  to  use  his  own  words,  one  of 
**  those  whom  a  philosophic  conception  of  life  has  raised, 
not  indeed  above  patriotism,  but  above  the  errors  into  which 
one  is  drawn  by  an  unenlightened  patriotism. ' ' 

It  is  in  this  spirit  that  he  prepared  for  the  Revue  des 
deux  Mandes,^  his  article  on  ' '  The  War  Between  France  and 
Germany,"  a  war  that  he  had  always  regarded  as  "the 
greatest  misfortune  that  could  befall  civilization,"  since  by 
it  "the  intellectual,  moral  and  political  harmony  is  broken," 
and  hatred  is  substituted  for  understanding.  Prussia  is 
hard,  ungenerous  and  proud;  France,  superficial  and  pre- 
sumptuous. It  was  her  opposition  that  made  the  Prussian 
strength.  The  Unity  of  Germany  is  perfectly  legitimate,  and 
in  spite  of  the  fact  that  the  Baltic  nobles  want  to  Prussian- 
ize the  whole  nation  and  then  all  the  world,  Prussia  will 
gradually  be  absorbed  in  the  German  state.''  *  *  Prussia  will 
pass,  Germany  will  remain."  Democracy  will  overwhelm 
militarism,  a  task  in  which  it  deserves  assent  and  grateful 
sympathy.    Once  dynasties  are  renounced,  there  is  no  prin- 

•  August  23,  For  comment  on  this  remark  see  the  speech  of  Antistius 
(Drames  philosophiques,  p.  349):  "Among  those  who  take  and  give 
death,  there  are  few  who  act  from  any  motive!  Man's  arm  is  sinewed 
only  by  passion.  There  must  be  rules  to  act  as  a  wolf  among  wolves. 
As  to  erecting  into  lofty  morality  that  which  is  the  negation  of  all 
morality,  it  is  an  exercise  for  which  I  have  little  taste.  Let  the 
people  do  without  principles;  but  do  not  give  them  sophisms  for 
truths. ' ' 

•September  15,  1870:  La  Beforme  iniellectuelle  et  morale. 
'A  poet,  Auguste  Barbier,  took  a  different  view: 

"Le  venin  de  la  Prusse  en  toi  reste  k  jamais, 
Et  morte  est  rAUemagne." 

Eevue  des  deux  Mondes,  October  1,  1870,  p.  561. 

283 


ERNEST  RENAN 

ciple  to  apply  to  boundaries  but  the  principle  of  national- 
ities. Without  Alsace  and  Lorraine,  France  could  hardly 
survive,  and  Europe  without  France  would  lack  an  essential 
element  of  life.  But  the  principle  of  nationalities  holds  in 
it  the  germs  of  wars  of  extinction.  **The  end  of  war  will 
be  seen  only  when  to  this  principle  is  added  its  corrective, 
the  principle  of  a  European  federation,  superior  to  all  na- 
tionalities." Renan  therefore  calls  for  the  intervention 
of  all  the  neutrals,  leading  to  a  federal  pact.  To  the  Prus- 
sian naturalists  who  argue  that  the  strong  drive  out  the 
weak,  he  answers  that  the  analogy  of  the  animals  does  not 
hold:  There  is  in  humanity  a  sense  of  right,  justice,  mo- 
rality. Never  have  several  species  of  animals  formed  a 
coalition  to  fight  an  aggressor,  as  Europe  did  against  Spain 
in  the  sixteenth  century,  against  Louis  XIV  and  against 
Napoleon.  ''The  wise  friends  of  Prussia  whisper  to  her, 
not  as  a  menace,  but  as  a  warning:  Vce  Victoribus!" 

Of  all  Renan 's  writings  on  the  war,  this  is  the  most  com- 
plete. The  same  ideas,  however,  and  often  in  identical  words, 
are  repeated  in  his  letters  to  his  * '  learned  master, ' '  Strauss.* 
The  first  of  these,  dated  September  13  and  published  in  the 
Dehats  September  16,  is  an  answer  to  a  letter  printed  by 
the  German  scholar  in  the  Augsburg  Gazette  for  August  18, 
and  by  Renan  in  the  Dehats  for  September  15.  In  this  com- 
munication, after  a  historical  review  of  the  steps  toward 
the  unity  of  Germany,  Strauss  places  the  blame  for  hostili- 
ties on  France  and  invites  Renan  to  reply  through  the 
press.  Renan  thus  became  the  literary  protagonist  of  the 
French  nation  before  the  world,  a  nation  which  he  claims  is 
pacific  and  not  to  be  judged  by  journalistic  declamation. 
Let  the  present  boundaries  remain.    It  is  for  the  victor  to 

•Kenan's  letters  are  published  in  "La  Be  forme  vntellectuelle  et 
morale" ;  those  of  D.  F.  Strauss  in  Gesammelte  Schriften,  vol.  i.  See 
also  Maurice  Muret,  "La  Querelle  de  Strauss  et  Kenan,"  Bevxie  des 
deva  Mondes,  1915,  tome  zzx. 

284 


FRANCO-PRUSSIAN  WAR 

decide  whether  France  is  to  resolve  on  revenge  or  to  join  an 
alliance  with  Germany  and  England.  Let  there  be  a  Con- 
gress of  the  United  States  of  Europe,  "Up  to  our  time,  the 
central  power  of  the  European  community  has  been  shown 
only  in  temporary  coalitions  against  any  people  who  as- 
pired to  universal  dominion;  it  would  be  good  that  a  per- 
manent and  preventive  coalition  should  be  formed  for  the 
maintenance  of  the  chief  common  interests,  which  are  after 
all  those  of  reason  and  civilization." 

The  reply  of  Strauss,  dated  September  29,  also  printed  in 
the  Augsburg  Gazette,  October  2,  shows  the  baleful  effects 
of  the  poison  of  Prussianism.  The  Hohenzollem  tradition 
seems  to  him  moderation,  not  arrogance,  and  he  admires  the 
Prussians  as  * '  political  animals. ' '  In  the  new  state,  Prussia 
will  provide  bone  and  sinew,  South  Germany  flesh  and  blood. 
The  victorious  anny  will  bring  back  from  France  German 
unity  and  it  will  not  lay  down  the  sword  till  the  purpose 
of  the  war  is  attained,  though  after  that  it  will  brandish 
the  weapon  no  longer.  The  final  pages  are  boastful  and 
arrogant,  even  insulting.  "If  you  had  spoken  so  to  your 
French  people,  0  Ernest  Renan,  and  converted  them  to 
your  peaceful  beliefs,  our  soldiers  would  not  soon  be  drink- 
ing choice  French  wines  in  Paris. ' '  * 

The  conduct  of  Strauss  in  this  correspondence  was  boor- 
ish. Renan  had  printed  his  opponent's  first  letter  in  the 
Debats  before  answering  it ;  Strauss  did  not  reciprocate  this 
courtesy  when  he  published  his  second  letter  in  the  Augs- 
burg Gazette.  Instead,  he  printed  the  three  documents, 
presentation,  reply  and  refutation,  an  obviously  unfair  pro- 
ceeding, in  a  pamphlet,  which  was  sold  for  the  benefit  of  the 
German  wounded.  His  misunderstanding  of  Renan 's  re- 
marks about  boundaries  would  be  dishonest  in  one  not 
blinded  by  an  intolerant  and  supercilious  patriotism.     The 

•  Strauss,  p.  339. 

285 


ERNEST  RENAN 

Grerman  professors  of  1914  were  his  legitimate  offspring. 
Kenan's  comment  is  a  model  of  urbanity  combined  with 
inflexible  severity.  Of  Strauss  he  had  written  to  Ritter :  ^° 
"He  is,  I  think,  the  man  of  this  century  for  whom  I  have 
the  greatest  admiration  and  sympathy."  But  this  high 
opinion,  like  so  many  of  Renan  's  ideals,  had  received  a  rude 
shock.  In  his  second  letter  to  his  "learned  master,"  dated 
September  15,  1871,  after  rehearsing  the  story  of  the  cor- 
respondence, he  indicates  "the  difference  between  your 
way  and  mine  of  comprehending  life,"  making  perfectly 
clear  the  fact  that  this  difference  is  one  of  good  manners. 
Strauss  had  done  him  the  honor  of  translating  and  publish- 
ing his  letter  together  with  two  of  his  own,  and  the  profits 
of  the  pamphlet  had  accrued  to  the  German  troops.  "The 
work  to  which  you  made  me  contribute, ' '  says  Renan,  "  is  a 
work  of  humanity,  and,  if  my  humble  prose  has  procured 
some  cigars  for  the  soldiers  who  pillaged  my  little  cottage 
at  Sevres,  I  thank  you  for  having  furnished  me  the  oppor- 
tunity of  conforming  my  conduct  to  certain  of  the  precepts 
of  Jesus  which  I  believe  to  be  the  most  authentic."  He 
proceeds  to  utter  a  warning  against  exactly  what  has  in  our 
day  finally  happened.  "The  only  vice  that  is  punished  in 
this  world  is  pride."  Moderation  had  not  won  the  day.  It 
was  the  right  of  Alsace  to  choose  its  nationality ;  "  we  do  not 
admit  the  cession  of  souls."  What  has  been  introduced  is 
a  "zoological  war."  "You  have  raised  in  the  world  the 
flag  of  ethnographic  and  archaeologic,  in  place  of  liberal,  pol- 
itics ;  that  policy  will  be  fatal  to  you.  .  .  .  Each  affirmation 
of  Germanism  is  an  affirmation  of  Slavism."  Renan  would 
dislike  a  planet  in  which  everybody  was  like  himself.  "If 
all  the  world  were  made  in  your  German  image,  it  would 
perhaps  be  a  little  gloomy  and  tedious.  .  .  .  This  universe 
is  a  spectacle  that  a  god  has  procured  for  himself.    Let  us 

"September  3,  1869.    Charles  Bitter,  ses  amis  et  ses  maitrea:  ohoix 
de  lettres,  1911. 

286 


FRANCO-PRUSSIAN  WAR 

cany  out  the  intentions  of  the  great  Choragus  in  contrib- 
uting to  make  the  spectacle  as  brilliant  and  varied  as  pos- 
sible."  He  has  vainly  counseled  love;  he  will  not  counsel 
hate,  but  will  be  silent.  Yet  he  concludes  with  quoting  the 
words  put  by  ^schylus  into  the  mouth  of  Prometheus:  "Ju- 
piter, in  spite  of  all  his  pride,  would  do  well  to  be  humble. 
At  present,  since  he  is  conqueror,  let  him  sit  on  his  throne 
at  ease,  trusting  to  the  peal  of  his  thunder  and  shaking  in 
his  hand  his  dart  of  flame.  All  this  will  not  preserve  him 
from  some  day  falling  ignominiously  with  a  horrible  crash. 
He  himself,  I  see,  creates  his  enemy,  a  monster  hard  to 
combat,  who  will  find  a  flame  superior  to  lightning,  a  peal 
superior  to  thunder.  Vanquished  then,  he  will  understand 
by  experience  how  different  it  is  to  reign  or  to  serve."  In 
particulars  Renan  was  no  better  prophet  than  many  an- 
other, but  when  he  took  the  cosmic  view,  his  sight  was  clear 
and  just. 

The  second  letter  to  Strauss  was,  of  course,  written  after 
the  treaty  of  Frankfort.  During  the  Siege  of  Paris,  Renan 
was  pleading  with  his  countrymen  for  reason  and  calm  judg- 
ment. Convinced  that  an  organized  and  disciplined  force 
always  defeats  an  unorganized  and  undisciplined  one,  he 
perceived  the  uselessness  of  continuing  the  war  after  the 
establishment  of  the  new  government  on  the  fourth  of  Sep- 
tember. The  Government  of  National  Defense,  composed 
only  of  the  Parisian  deputation,  together  with  certain  re- 
publicans, was  not  representative  of  France.  The  country 
cannot  be  governed  without  the  assent  of  the  provinces.  Un- 
willing to  ask  favors  of  the  conquerors,  he  yet  sees  the  pos- 
sibility of  electing  an  assembly  from  the  departments  not 
yet  invaded,  which  constitutes  three-quarters  of  the  whole 
number,  and  to  such  members  might  be  added  a  selection  of 
the  best  men  from  the  occupied  districts.  Let  no  exaggerated 
and  pedantic  considerations  of  regularity  interfere;  let 
cveiy  onp  forget  party  divisions,  and  constitute  a  unity  U) 

287 


ERNEST  KENAN 

the  presence  of  the  enemy.  There  must  be  an  assembly,  and 
it  must  be  distinct  from  the  body  that  is  to  regulate  the 
future  political  destinies  of  France.  To  save  the  people  is 
the  dire  need  in  the  hour  of  distress.  Let  party  and  per- 
sonal ambitions  be  thrown  to  the  winds.  *  *  Candidates,  great 
heavens !  for  a  mission  of  tears  and  grief ! ' ' 

Kenan's  appeal  for  a  national  assembly  was  presented  in 
three  letters  to  the  Dehats,  November  10,  13,  and  28,  1870. 
To  these,  as  might  have  been  anticipated,  the  politicians 
paid  no  attention;  they  secured  an  armistice  (January  28, 
1871)  so  that  regular  elections  might  be  held,  they  got  into 
a  fierce  squabble  over  the  exclusion  of  Bonapartist  office- 
holders, in  which  Bismarck  had  to  intervene,  and  the  re- 
sulting assembly  viciously  clung  to  power  for  five  years 
and  at  length  voted  the  constitutional  laws  of  1875  which 
regulated  the  political  destinies  of  France. 

At  the  elections  of  February  8,  1871,  for  which  there  was 
no  time  to  make  a  canvass,  Kenan  allowed  his  name  to  be 
presented,  but  he  was  defeated.  "I  have  no  hope,"  he 
wrote  Berthelot  on  February  27,  "for  I  am  the  first  to 
admit  that  the  remedies  I  perceive  are  impossible,  at  least 
for  the  present,  and  even  within  a  fairly  distant  future." 
Nevertheless,  he  insists  on  presenting  his  remedies  to  the 
public.  On  March  17,  Taine  writes :  ^^  "  Kenan  has  lent  me 
four  long  political  articles  dealing  with  the  situation,  which 
he  probably  will  not  publish.  They  are  loose,  abstract,  not 
very  good.  He  is  by  no  means  at  his  best.  He  has  always 
plenty  of  ideas,  but  his  fundamental  notion  will  repel ;  very 
clearly  he  is  for  the  restoration  of  aristocracy,  the  better  to 
follow  the  example  of  Prussia." 

These  four  articles,  made  into  one,  form  the  title  essay 
of  Intellectual  and  Moral  Beform,  published  in  October, 
1871.^^     Economic   considerations,   as  usual,    are   none  of 

"  Vie  et  correspondance,  vol.  iii,  59. 

"  The  rest  of  tbe  book  is  made  up  of  the  letters  to  Strauss^  the  1370 

288 


FRANCO-PRUSSIAN  WAR 

Renan's  concern.  In  the  first  part  of  this  essay,  headed 
"The  E\ll,"  he  shows  the  general  incapacity  of  France, 
resulting  from  universal  suffrage.  The  materialism  of  the 
workmen  and  peasants,  their  moral  debasement  and  indif- 
ference, and  the  selfish  desire  for  comfort  among  the  bour- 
geoisie, must  result  in  mediocrity,  while  the  absence  of  dis- 
cipline and  self-sacrifice  had  unfitted  the  country  for  war. 
"The  group  of  statesmen  and  generals  in  command  when 
France  faced  Prussia  was  the  most  inefficient  any  nation 
had  ever  had."  On  the  other  hand,  Prussia  had  been  pre- 
served from  industrial  materialism  by  the  old  regime,  which 
fostered  subordination,  the  idea  of  duty  and  the  military 
spirit.  "Military  organization  is  founded  on  discipline; 
democracy  is  the  negation  of  discipline."  The  German 
victory,  therefore,  while  a  triumph  of  science  and  reason, 
was  also  a  triumph  of  the  old  regime.  After  defeat,  the 
Commune  showed  a  wound  beneath  a  wound,  an  abyss  be- 
low an  abyss.  Yet  "France  renewed  its  life;  the  corpse 
disputed  by  the  worms  again  developed  warmth  and  mo- 
tion." 

The  second  part  of  the  essay,  headed  "The  Remedies," 
is  based  upon  the  idea  that  France  must  regain  the  lost 
provinces.  Patriotism  demands  this  restoration.  If  Ger- 
many had  left  the  nation  intact,  she  might  have  established 
permanent  peace  in  Europe,  but  now  even  a  philosopher 
cannot  be  deaf  to  the  cry  of  two  million  souls.  To  accom- 
plish the  task  a  reform  is  essential.  Penitence  involves  the 
correction  of  fundamental  faults,  and  the  fundamental  fault 
of  France  has  been  a  taste  for  superficial  democracy.  The 
model  before  it  is  the  victor :  Prussia  after  Tilsit  became  in 
fifty  years  the  first  power  in  Europe. 

letters  to  the  Bebats,  the  lecture  on  family  and  state  in  education,  and 
the  two  latest  essays  in  the  Bevue  des  deux  Mcmdes,  that  on  constitu- 
tional monarchy  and  that  on  the  war.  It  is  entirely  a  book  of  ciy- 
cumstance. 

289 


ERNEST  RENAN 

At  this  point,  for  the  first  time,  Renan  employs  imaginary 
speakers  to  express  the  opposite  phases  of  his  thought.  A 
first  citizen,  who  clearly  represents  the  author's  preferences, 
urges  France  to  restore  royalty  and,  to  a  certain  extent, 
aristocracy,  since  duty  is  aristocratic  and  democracy  with 
its  indiscipline  and  disorder  cannot  make  war.  Then  the 
nation  should  found  a  system  of  solid  education  and  obliga- 
tory military  training;  it  should  become  serious,  submissive 
to  authority,  amenable  to  rule  and  discipline ;  and  in  twenty 
years  it  can  avenge  Sedan,  The  second  citizen,  on  the  con- 
trary, who  represents  what  is  most  likely  to  take  place,  con- 
siders such  a  program  chimerical.  France,  in  his  view,  will 
not  change,  but  will  continue  in  her  course  until  she  cor- 
rupts her  neighbors  to  the  same  materialistic  egotism  and 
drags  all  of  them  down  to  a  uniform  plane  of  national 
feebleness. 

The  essay  proceeds  to  devise  plans  for  elections  to  two 
chambers,  a  common  recreation  for  French  publicists  at  that 
time.  Three  points  in  Renan 's  scheme  are  interesting: 
(1)  There  should  be  representation,  not  only  of  numbers, 
but  of  functions,  such  as  army  and  navj'',  teachers,  clergy, 
and  chambers  of  commerce;  (2)  women  and  children  should 
be  counted,  the  vote  being  cast  by  the  male  members  of  the 
family,  since  "it  is  surely  impossible  that  women  should 
participate  directly  in  political  life";  (3)  the  publication 
of  debates,  since  it  leads  to  prolixity  and  declamation,  should 
not  be  allowed. 

In  education  Renan  would  leave  the  elementary  schools 
to  the  Church,  the  university  to  the  Liberals.  Literary 
studies,  which  have  been  overemphasized,  should  largely 
give  place  to  science,  though  this  should  consist  of  princi- 
ples and  not  of  practical  applications.  There  should  be 
half  a  dozen  independent  and  autonomous  universities. 

Perhaps  our  defeat  has  been  a  benefit,  he  says  in  conclu- 
gjoD;  for  we  might  have  proceeded  in  our  folly.    There  are 

290 


CONTINUED  PRODUCTIVITY 

two  types  of  society  before  us :  the  American,  free,  given  to 
labor  and  to  the  pleasure  of  activity,  but  lacking  distinction 
and  the  capacity  to  produce  original  works  in  art  and  science ; 
and  its  opposite,  the  old  regime,  which  can  be  developed 
and  corrected  by  liberalism.  Though  France  is  not  tending 
toward  the  American  type,  but  rather  toward  an  unstable 
socialism  which  leads  to  Caesarism,  yet  she  always  does  the 
unexpected  and  may  do  it  again.  At  any  rate,  she  has  been 
generous,  she  is  the  salt  of  the  earth,  and  without  her  the 
world  would  be  tasteless.  The  last  word  of  the  essay,  re- 
calling Candide's,  "We  must  cultivate  our  garden,"  is 
Ldboremus. 

II 

Between  the  composition  of  these  articles  and  their  pub- 
lication, the  Commune,  with  its  immense  destruction  of 
property  and  its  horrible  sacrifice  of  life,  had  inflicted  upon 
Paris  wounds  in  comparison  with  which  the  damage  wrought 
by  the  siege  was  a  mere  trifle.  To  Eenan  the  visions  of  the 
Apocalypse  seemed  almost  realized  and  his  experiences  have 
marked  their  trail  through  The  Antichrist,  upon  which  he 
was  then  engaged.  For  his  political  counsels  he  expected  no 
hearing,  and  he  got  none.  He  had  worked  for  the  intellectual, 
moral  and  political  alliance  of  Germany  and  France,  which 
would  draw  in  Englard  and  constitute  a  force  able  to  govern 
the  world.  But  his  early  mistress,  from  whom  he  had  derived 
the  best  that  was  in  him,  had  mocked  the  ideal,  "What 
we  loved  in  Germany,  her  largeness,  her  lofty  conception 
of  reason  and  humanity,  exist  no  longer."  Yet  he  hopes. 
* '  May  there  be  formed  at  length  a  league  of  men  of  good  will 
of  every  tribe,  of  every  tongue,  of  every  people,  who  will  be 
able  to  create  and  maintain  above  these  hot  conflicts  an 
empyrean  of  pure  ideals,  a  heaven  where  there  will  be  neither 
Greek  nor  barbarian,  nor  German,  nor  Latin.  "^^     Though 

"  Preface,  La  Beforme,  p.  xii. 

291 


ERNEST  RENAN 

always  interested,  often  agitated,  by  political  events,  Renan 
ceased  to  write  upon  the  subject.  In  1876,  when  asked  to 
stand  for  Senator  to  represent  the  Bouches-du-Rhone,  he 
allowed  his  name  to  be  presented,  but  refused  even  to  go 
to  Marseilles  to  attend  the  caucus.  When  Jules  Simon  asked 
him  if  he  would  vote  with  his  party,  he  replied:  "Pretty 
often."" 

It  is  fairly  certain  that  Renan  would  not  have  been  a 
successful  political  leader.  His  task  was  elsewhere,  and  his 
task  was  his  delight.  His  venture  into  this  field  is,  however, 
not  to  be  regretted. 

I  will  not  hide  the  fact  [he  says  in  the  introduction  to  The  Anti- 
christ] that  the  taste  for  history,  the  incomparable  delight  felt 
in  seeing  the  spectacle  of  humanity  unfold,  has  particularly  cap- 
tivated me  in  this  volume,  I  have  had  too  much  pleasure  in 
writing  it  to  ask  any  further  recompense.  Often  I  have  re- 
proached myself  for  having  enjoyed  myself  so  much  in  my  study 
while  my  poor  country  is  being  consumed  in  a  slow  agony;  but 
I  have  a  quiet  conscience.  When  in  the  elections  of  1869  I  of- 
fered myself  to  the  suffrage  of  my  fellow  citizens,  all  my  placards 
bore  in  large  letters:  "No  revolution;  no  war;  a  war  will  be  as 
injurious  as  a  revolution."  In  the  month  of  September,  1870,  I 
begged  the  enlightened  minds  of  Germany  and  of  Europe  to  think 
of  the  frightful  misfortune  that  menaced  civilization.  During  the 
siege,  in  Paris,  in  the  month  of  November,  1870,  I  exposed  my- 
self to  the  greatest  unpopularity  by  advising  the  calling  of  an 
assembly  having  power  to  treat  for  peace.  In  the  elections  of 
1871,  I  answered  to  the  overtures  made  me:  "Such  a  mandate 
may  be  neither  sought  nor  refused."  After  the  reestablishment 
of  order,  I  applied  all  my  attention  to  the  reforms  that  I  consider 
the  most  urgent  to  save  our  country.  I  have  therefore  done  what 
I  could.  We  owe  our  country  our  sincerity;  we  are  not  obliged 
to  resort  to  charlatanism  to  make  it  accept  our  services  or  our 
ideas.     (P.  xlix.) 

Many  of  the  political  ideas  of  Renan  were  held  in  com- 
mon by  Taine  and  others  of  what  may  perhaps  be  called 
^*Quatre  Portraits, 

292 


CONTINUED  PRODUCTIVITY 

the  Whig  group.  In  one  way  or  another,  they  have  not 
been  without  their  influence.  The  scholar's  services,  how- 
ever, belonged  to  his  country,  not  in  its  parliament,  but  in 
its  institutions  of  learning.  On  November  17,  Jules  Simon 
being  Minister  of  Public  Instruction,  Renan  was  for  a  sec- 
ond time  appointed  to  the  chair  of  Hebrew  in  the  College 
de  France,  and  there  he  remained  till  his  death.^^  At  the 
Academy  of  Inscriptions  and  Belles-Lettres,  which  did  not 
omit  a  single  one  of  its  weekly  meetings  during  all  this 
troublous  period,  he  presided  over  every  gathering  for  1870, 
excepting  the  three  already  noted.  In  January,  1870,  he 
was  driven  by  the  German  shells  from  his  home  in  the  rue 
Vanneau  to  temporary  quarters  on  the  right  bank  of  the 
Seine.  In  April  he  went  to  Sevres,  where  sixteen  persons 
lived  in  his  sacked  cottage.  In  spite  of  his  "invincible  re- 
pugnance to  fleeing,"  the  shells  in  the  battle  with  the  Com- 
mune again  drove  him  out,  and,  terribly  distressed,  and 
assured  that  he  could  be  of  no  service  to  the  cause  of 
reason,  he  took  refuge  on  May  1  in  lodgings  at  Versailles,  ^* 
During  the  four  weeks  spent  here,^^  while  separated  from 
his  books  and  his  customary  tasks,  he  made  use  of  his  forced 
leisure  for  a  review  of  his  fundamental  philosophic  beliefs. 
The  form  of  dialogue  was  chosen  as  being  undogmatic  and 
presenting  varying  phases  of  problems  without  requiring 
any  conclusion.  The  purpose  is  to  arouse  reflection,  even 
at  the  expense  of  exaggeration,  for  the  dignity  of  man  de- 
mands that  we  should  not  be  indifferent  to  such  questions, 
though  we  cannot  hope  for  conclusive  answers.     It  is  a 

"Berthelot  proposed  to  the  Government  of  National  Defense  the 
reappointment  of  Eenan.  "You  must  see  Trochu,"  said  Jules  Simon. 
Pelletan  supported  the  request.  Trochu  said  nothing,  and  the  decree 
was  signed:  Speech  of  Berthelot  at  the  unveiling  of  the  statue  of 
Benan  at  Tr^guier,  Een4  d'Ys,  p.  449.  Jules  Simon  says  in  his 
jaunty  way:  "I  gave  him  back  his  chair  without  his  asking  it." 
Qtiatre  Portraits. 

"To  Berthelot,  April  17,  29,  30. 

"  He  writes  to  Berthelot  again  from  Sevres,  May  28. 

293 


ERNEST  RENAN 

superficial  mind  that  never  casts  a  glance  into  the  depths  of 
the  abyss  it  cannot  hope  to  fathom. 

It  is  hardly  necessary  for  Renan  to  inform  us  that  his 
interlocutors  do  not  represent  persons,  either  imaginary  or 
real.  He  has  not  attempted  to  give  them  individuality. 
They  are  obviously,  as  he  calls  them,  "the  different  lobes  of 
his  brain, ' '  freely  talking  together.  Malebranche  and  Kant, 
to  whose  formulas  all  must  return,  are  the  metaphysical 
writers  chiefly  quoted,  though  Fichte,  Hegel  and  Schopen- 
hauer are  also  referred  to. 

In  the  first  Dialogue,  entitled  "Certitudes,"  Philalethe, 
Eudoxe  and  Euthyphron,  philosophers  of  the  school  that 
has  for  fundamental  principles  the  worship  of  the  ideal, 
the  negation  of  the  supernatural  and  the  experimental  in- 
vestigation of  reality,  starting  from  a  passage  from  Male- 
branche, review  their  ideas  on  God  and  the  universe,  a  prac- 
tice that  ought  to  be  renewed  every  ten  years.^*  The  first 
certitude  is  that  there  is  no  trace  of  the  action  in  particular 
cases  of  the  will  of  any  being  superior  to  man.  Prayer  is 
but  a  mystic  hymn ;  if  employed  for  self-interest,  it  would 
be  an  insult  to  the  Divinity.  The  second  certitude  is  that 
the  world  has  an  aim  and  works  toward  a  mysterious  result ; 
it  develops  from  an  inward  necessity,  an  unconscious  in- 
stinct, analogous  to  the  blind  efforts  of  plants  and  embryos. 
Everything  tries  to  realize  itself.  All  reality  aspires  to  con- 
sciousness, and  all  obscure  consciousness  aspires  to  clarity. 
Up  to  the  present  the  consciousness  of  the  whole  is  so  obscure, 
that  it  scarcely  surpasses  that  of  the  oyster  or  the  polyp ;  but 
it  exists  and  rises  toward  its  end  with  sure  instinct.  The  doc- 
trine of  final  causes  is  replaced  by  the  doctrine  of  evolution. 
The  secret  spring  that  moves  all  is  God.    "We  are  duped  for 


"Kenan's  own  practice  is,  as  usual,  generalized:  1849,  The  Future 
of  Science;  1860,  "Metaphysics  and  its  Future";  1871,  Philosophic 
Dialogues;  1880,  nothing  published;  1889,  "Examination  of  Phil- 
osophic Conscience." 

294 


CONTINUED  PRODUCTIVITY 

nature's  purposes,  and  every  desire,  as  soon  as  fulfilled,  is 
seen  to  be  vanity.  We  know  this,  and  yet  pursue  our  desires. 
Self-devotion  and  virtue  among  men  are  analogous  to  tlie  ma- 
ternal instinct  among  birds,  a  blind  sacrifice  to  an  unknown 
end.  An  ingenious  providence  takes  its  precautions  to  as- 
sure the  amount  of  virtue  needed  to  sustain  the  universe. 
For  the  true  philosopher,  to  obey  nature  is  to  collaborate  in 
the  divine  work.  Morality  reduces  itself  to  submission.  Im- 
morality is  revolt  against  this  course  of  things. 

For  the  second  Dialogue,  "Probabilities,"  Theophraste 
has  joined  the  others,  and  becomes  the  principal  speaker.  In 
the  immense  activity  of  the  world,  he  maintains,  all  rival 
egotisms  cancel  one  another,  but  what  is  done  for  the  ideal 
subsists  and  gradually  accumulates  as  capital.  It  is  by 
what  little  we  add  to  this  reserv^e  of  progress  that  we  live 
eternally.  All  is  bom  of  matter,  but  it  is  the  idea  that 
animates.  A  symphony  consists  of  physical  vibrations  and 
the  idea  of  the  composer,  neither  existing  without  the  other. 
"The  idea  is  a  virtuality  that  craves  existence;  matter 
gives  it  concreteness,  makes  it  a  reality."  Perfect  existence 
is  to  be  attributed  only  to  the  idea,  or  rather  to  the  idea 
conscious  of  itself,  the  soul.  The  highest  expression  of 
consciousness  known  to  us  is  humanity,  and  the  highest 
expression  of  humanity  is  science,  virtue,  art.  If  these  fail 
here,  yet  in  some  other  world,  through  nature's  profusion, 
perfection  will  be  realized.  The  universal  work  of  all  that 
lives  is  to  make  God  perfect,  to  contribute  to  the  grand 
final  resultant  that  will  close  the  circle  of  things  by  unity. 
This  work  hitherto  accomplished  blindly  by  a  tendency,  rea- 
son will  take  in  hand  and,  after  having  organized  humanity, 
will  organize  God.  Science  may  conquer  what  seem  in- 
superable difficulties,  and  a  small  body  of  men,  by  scientific 
secrets  inaccessible  to  common  brains,  may  control  the 
mass. 

Theocist  is  now  added  to  speak  of  "Dreams"  in  the  third 

295 


ERNEST  RENAN 

Dialogue.  He  goes  beyond  humanity  and  assigns  to  the 
universe  an  aim  superior  to  man's  conception.  The  future 
consciousness  of  humanity  may  be  infinitely  superior  to 
the  present.  Philosophically  speaking,  democracy  has  little 
chance  of  success.  It  is  impossible  to  raise  all  to  the  same 
level,  for  this  is  contrary  to  the  ways  of  God,  which  create 
summits,  superior  beings  whom  others  are  glad  to  serve. 
An  elite  of  intelligence,  masters  of  the  secrets  of  reality, 
would  dominate  the  world  and  make  reason  reign.  Such 
men  would  actually  possess  the  power  claimed  by  the  Church. 
Truly  infallible,  beneficent,  all-powerful,  they  might  have 
the  means  to  destroy  the  planet.  There  might  thus  be 
developed  a  superior  race.  Or  the  universe  might  be  re- 
duced to  a  single  existence,  all  nature  producing  a  central 
life,  the  sum  of  billions  of  lives,  past  and  present,  like  the 
cells  in  an  organism.  Sometimes  he  conceives  God  as  the 
vast  consciousness  in  which  all  are  reflected,  each  having  his 
part,  artist,  writer,  saint,  even  the  man  of  pleasure.  The 
resurrection  of  the  individual,  a  soul  without  the  body,  is 
chimerical.  God,  become  perfect,  will  resuscitate  the  past. 
Those  who  have  contributed  to  the  work  will  feel  its  accom- 
plishment ;  those  who  have  made  no  sacrifice  will  go  to  noth- 
ingness, A  sleep  of  a  billion  centuries  and  one  of  an  hour 
are  equal.  The  recompense  will  seem  to  follow  death  im- 
mediately. God  is  an  absolute  necessity.  He  will  be,  He 
is.  As  a  reality,  He  will  be;  as  ideal,  He  is.  We  reach  a 
point  where  we  must  stop.  Reason  and  language  apply  only 
to  the  finite.  "It  is  about  as  the  priests  speak,  only  the 
words  are  different."  The  last  phrase  of  the  essay  asserts: 
"In  matters  of  virtue,  each  finds  certitude  in  consulting 
his  own  heart." 

The  developments  omitted  in  the  foregoing  analysis  but 
slightly  modify  the  current  of  the  thought,  though  a  few 
of  them  rather  scandalized  some  readers.  Such,  for  ex- 
ample, the  remark  that  nature  does  not  favor  virtue;  or 

296 


CONTINUED  PRODUCTIVITY 

that  the  universe  is  the  great  egotist  that  catches  us  with 
the  grossest  baits;  or  that  criticism  demolishes  religion, 
love,  goodness,  truth;  or  that  there  may  come  a  time  when 
a  great  artist  or  a  virtuous  man  will  be  an  antiquated,  al- 
most useless  thing.  These,  however,  are  but  sallies  by  the 
way ;  the  fundamental  thought  is  that  of  The  Future  of  Sci- 
ence, systematically  developed  and  with  a  few  additional 
side  lights.  Taine  finds  in  Renan  much  of  Plato,  almost  a 
poet,  which  may  be  the  truest  philosophy.  That  the  world 
has  an  aim  and  labors  toward  a  mysterious  end,  he  would 
range  rather  among  the  probabilities  than  among  the  certi- 
tudes, and  he  invites  his  friend  to  develop  the  thesis.^^  For 
Renan,  however,  the  time  for  absolute  systems  was  past.  He 
traversed  philosophies,  but  dwelt  in  none.  He  had,  indeed, 
no  doubt  regarding  his  own  views,  though  ready  to  admit 
that  the  opposite  might  be  right.  In  his  heart  he  knew 
that  love,  universal  goodness,  is  the  law  that  does  not  de- 
ceive, and  that  goodness  depends  upon  no  theory  conceived 
by  the  intellect. 

It  was  the  same  with  his  patriotism,  which  to  some  people 
seemed  occasionally  to  flicker.  It  was  firm  in  his  heart. 
When  rumor  ascribed  to  Berthelot  the  idea  of  taking  a 
position  in  England,  Renan  wrote :  ^°  "  For  Heaven 's  sake, 
reject  that  idea.  You  would  fail  in  a  matter  of  duty.  The 
more  unhappy  our  country,  the  less  we  should  think  of  quit- 
ting it. ' '  Unless  driven  out,  deprived  of  intellectual  liberty 
or  left  to  starve,  those  who  have  benefited  from  its  insti- 
tutions and  its  past  would  defraud  the  nation  of  the  capital 
advanced  for  their  good.  Even  if  the  College  de  France  is 
left  without  governmental  support,  he  will  continue  his 
work  there  without  pay,  however  "shameful,  stupid,  in- 
famous, repulsive"  the  Parisian  mob  may  become. 


"Letter  of  June  5,   1876. 
•April  29,  1871. 


297 


ERNEST  RENAN 


III 


"Science,  like  duty,  is  never  dormant,"  said  Renan  in 
his  presidential  address  on  the  occasion  of  bestowing  the 
annual  prizes  of  the  Academy  of  Inscriptions,  December 
29,  1871.  While  not  a  single  weekly  meeting  of  the  Acad- 
emy had  been  omitted,  the  scholarly  exercises  proceeding 
even  when  a  shell  fell  upon  the  building  in  which  they  were 
held,  yet  the  annual  public  assemblage,  a  sort  of  fete,  was 
felt  to  be  an  impropriety  during  such  times.  Two  such 
meetings,  therefore,  were  combined  in  one,  at  which  both 
Renan  and  his  successor,  Delisle,  presided  in  turn.  Delisle, 
however,  contented  himself  with  distributing  the  prizes, 
leaving  Renan  the  orator  of  the  occasion,  an  occasion  which 
may  be  regarded  as  opening  the  series  of  those  felicitous 
speeches  for  which  he  later  was  in  such  demand.^^  Here 
he  insists  on  the  continuity  and  permanence  of  erudition, 
the  superior  value  of  serious  intellectual  work,  and  the  honor 
rightly  due  to  those  who  "attach  an  elevated,  almost  re- 
ligious meaning  to  their  studies. ' '  ^^ 

Erudition,  indeed,  was  for  a  time,  not  only  Renan 's  prin- 
cipal, but  his  sole  productive  occupation.  Even  his  ar- 
ticles for  the  Beinie  des  deux  Mondes  were  merely  the  ad- 
vance publication  of  memoirs  prepared  for  the  Histaire 
litteraire  de  la  France.'^^     For  this  collection  he  also  pre- 

"^A  previous  brief  address  as  president  of  the  Academy  had  been 
delivered  on  May  10,  1870,  at  the  funeral  of  Villemain.  Discours 
et  conferences. 

"Melanges  d'histoire  et  de  voyages. 

*  February  15  and  March  1,  1871,  "Un  publiciste  du  temps  de 
Philippe  le  Bel:  Pierre  du  Bois,"  and  March  15,  April  1  and  15, 
1872,  "Un  Ministre  de  Philippe  le  Bel:  Guillaume  de  Nogaret. " 
The  first  piece  is  surprising  in  a  magazine  addressed  to  the  reading 
public,  as  it  is  not  at  all  in  popular  form  and  contains  detailed 
analyses  of  the  author's  works.  The  second  piece,  divided  into 
"L 'Attentat  d'Anagni,"  "Les  Apologies  de  Nogaret  et  le  proc5s  des 
Templiers, "  and  "Le  Proems  contre  la  mSmoire  de  Boniface,"  has 
a  more  general  appeal;  in  fact,  the  story  of  Anagni  is  of  absorbing 

298 


CONTINUED  PRODUCTIVITY 

pared  an  article  on  "The  French  Rabbis  of  the  Beginning 
of  the  Fourteenth  Century,"  based  on  a  vast  assemblage 
of  notes  collected  by  Adolphe  Neubauer,  under-librarian  of 
the  Bodleian,  who  gathered  them  on  missions  to  the  various 
European  libraries.^*  Another  work  for  the  Academy  of 
Inscriptions  was  the  Corpus  Inscriptionum  Semiticarum, 
the  progress  of  which  we  learn  from  the  secretary's  reports 
in  the  Camptes  rendus.  On  July  5,  1872,  Renan  presents 
for  inspection  a  provisional  specimen  of  the  arrangement 
and  typography;  in  January,  1874,  the  committee,  having 
finished  its  preliminary  discussions,  is  ready  to  pass  to  the 
final  notices  on  each  inscription  y^^  in  February,  1875,  trans- 
lation into  Latin  and  final  and  uniform  editing  have  been 
begun;  and  in  a  few  weeks  a  chapter  can  be  printed  in 
proof  for  further  discussions;  in  August,  1876,  the  Phoeni- 
cian part,  about  one-half  of  the  work,  is  practically  finished ; 
in  January,  1877,  the  work  is  nearly  ready  and  in  July 
the  first  fascicle  is  complete,  merely  awaiting  funds  from 
the  government ;  the  following  February,  it  is  still  awaiting 
funds;  but  on  November  7,  1879,  Renan  in  triumph  placed 
on  the  table  the  proof  of  the  first  sheet  of  the  Corpus,  thus 
bringing  to  fruition  the  labors  of  twelve  years. 

interest.  A  further  contribution  to  the  same  series  appeared  in  the 
Bevue,  March  1,  1879,  "La  Papaute  hors  de  I'ltalie-— Clement  V." 
Published  in  vols,  xxvi  (1873),  xxvii  (1877),  and  rrviii  (1881)  of  the 
Histoire  litteraire  de  la  France,  they  were,  according  to  directions 
in  his  will,  collected  after  Kenan's  death  in  a  volume,  ttudes 
8wr  la  politique  religieuse  du  regne  de  Philippe  le  Bel  (1899).  L'eau 
de  jouvence  is  directly  connected  with  these  studies. 

**  Histoire  litteraire,  vol.  xxvii,  pp.  431-734.  The  work  had  been 
begun  eleven  years  before.  The  copy  was  ready  in  1874,  but  the 
volume  did  not  appear  till  1877. 

"Concerning  collaboration  in  interpreting  inscriptions,  Benan  says: 
"What  one  does  not  see,  is  apparent  to  another;  a  letter  ill-read  by 
this  one  is  rectified  by  that  one;  comparisons  not  dreamed  of  by  the 
first  investigators  are  clearly  perceived  by  their  successors;  so  that,  at 
the  end  of  three  or  four  years,  a  text  submitted  to  the  examination 
of  eight  or  ten  persons  capable  of  interpreting  it,  reaches  a  maturity, 
a  degree  of  clearness  in  which  it  remains  stationary  tiU  new  dis- 
coveries are  made,"    Report  to  Soci6t6  Asiatique,  June  30,  1874. 

299 


ERNEST  RENAN 

His  favorite  Societe  Asiatique  did  not  get  along  so  well 
as  the  Academy.  From  October  11,  1870,  to  February  24, 
1871,  no  meetings  were  held  and  thereafter  they  were  for 
some  time  very  irregular.  For  some  years  much  trouble 
was  experienced  in  obtaining  suitable  quarters,  until  they 
settled  in  1878  in  the  rue  de  Lille.  According  to  Darmeste- 
ter,  it  was  Renan's  faith  in  science  that  carried  the  society 
through  this  troublous  period.^^  Twice  reelected  secretary, 
he  inspired  his  colleagues  by  his  eagerly  awaited  annual  re- 
port. Though  the  founders  of  the  society  even  during  the 
Revolution  were  happy  in  comparison,  the  rule  he  enunci- 
ated was  to  continue  the  work  whether  or  not  it  had  a  future. 
"In  times  like  ours,  despair  is  overcome  only  by  a  reflective 
determination  to  fulfill  one's  task  of  every  day,  even  if  the 
mind  is  distracted  and  the  heart  heavy."  In  continuing 
intellectual  research,  the  members  act  as  good  patriots  and 
good  citizens,  for  there  is  no  better  service  to  their  dis- 
tracted country  than  to  maintain  the  tradition  of  solid 
intellectual  culture.  "It  is  because  France  allowed  the  sci- 
entific spirit,  the  habits  of  precision  and  exact  reasoning, 
the  aptitude  of  keeping  many  things  in  mind  at  once,  to 
perish  in  her  heart,  that  she  was  first  precipitated  into  a 
disastrous  war,  then  vanquished,  then  delivered  over  to  the 
most  desolating  of  civil  strifes.  ...  It  is  in  working  for 
this  reform  of  the  intellectual  education  of  France,  far  more 
than  by  agitations  and  sterile  declamations  that  we  shall 
contribute  to  raise  her  up  again.  Let  us  do  our  duty  as 
scholars  hour  by  hour,  without  seeking  popularity,  even 
without  hope  of  reward,  and  we  shall  be  assured  that  we 
have  well  served  our  country.  "^^ 

His  hopes  grow  as  the  years  pass.  Not  every  expectation 
has  been  realized,  but  what  acquisitions,  what  discoveries! 

*'Eevue  Bleue,  October  21,  1893. 

"Eeport  of  June  29,  1871.  All  these  Eeports  are  found  in  the  July 
number  of  the  Jovmal  Asiatique  for  the  year. 

300 


CONTINUED  PRODUCTIVITY 

The  young  men  of  the  Societe  de  Unguistique,  such  as  Breal 
and  Darmesteter,  are  welcomed.  (1874.)  His  pupil,  Phi- 
lippe Berger,  shows  wonderful  keenness  in  deciphering  in- 
scriptions. (1875.)  "It  is  a  true  joy  for  the  friend  of 
fine  and  excellent  things  to  see  the  ever  more  flourishing 
state  of  our  studies,  the  zeal,  the  activity,  the  solidity,  the 
vigor,  the  good  method  that  our  youthful  scholars,  imbued 
with  the  best  philological  and  critical  doctrines,  bring  to 
researches  in  which  the  only  recompense  is  the  service  ren- 
dered to  truth."     (1877.) 

While  the  major  portion  of  each  Report  is  devoted  to  the 
appreciation  of  deceased  scholars  ^®  and  a  critical  review 
of  the  French  oriental  works  of  the  year,  Renan  is  constantly 
drawing  morals  from  his  subject  matter.  When  Julien  and 
Pauthier,  who  had  lived  in  a  state  of  chronic  quarrel,  died 
within  the  year,  he  remarked :  "It  furnishes  a  lesson  from 
which  we  should  profit.  Liberty  of  criticism  is  the  funda- 
mental condition  of  science;  it  must  not  be  touched,  but 
personalities  of  every  kind  must  be  severely  banished.  Be- 
ware lest  rivalry  degenerate  into  hatred  and  the  career  of 
an  estimable  scholar  be  hindered,  because  two  persons  en- 
gaged in  the  same  studies  are  at  the  outset  of  their  activity 
placed  in  opposition  to  one  another.  If  the  number  of 
scholarly  positions  is  limited,  the  field  of  public  esteem 
is  immense.  To  seek  to  deprive  a  rival  of  that  recompense 
is  a  wicked  act. "  (1873.)  Scholars,  he  thinks,  are  generally 
too  severe  in  their  judgments  of  one  another.  Whoever 
gives  himself  disinterestedly  to  research  is  worthy  of  es- 
teem. "To  use  in  such  a  matter  disdainful  or  malevolent 
expressions  is  to  show  a  great  presumption.  Let  him  who 
has  never  made  a  mistake,  cast  the  first  stone."  For  char- 
latanism and  bad  work,  silence  is  best,  since  he  would  not 


"The  most  complete  of  these  is  the  appreciation  and  biographj 
of  Jules  Mohl.     (1876.) 

301 


ERNEST  RENAN 

be  a  policeman  of  erudition.  (1874.)  Yet  his  criticism, 
though  kindly,  never  fails  to  indicate  the  points  of  weakness, 
even  in  the  works  of  his  friends.  While  there  should  be  no 
frivolous  rhetoric,  there  is  for  the  most  special  studies  a 
style,  a  form,  conditions  of  elegance  and  refined  compo- 
sition. .  .  .  Making  no  sacrifice  in  the  subject  matter,  let 
us  do  all  we  can  not  to  repel  any  cultivated  mind  desiring 
to  enter  our  domain.  Obscure  topics  can  be  treated  clearly, 
and  a  conscientious  writer  ought  not  to  be  satisfied  until 
he  has  taken  all  the  pains  he  can  to  avoid  presenting  diffi- 
culties to  his  readers. ' '  ( 1875. ) 

It  is  not  only  in  his  great  histories,  and  in  his  general 
essays,  but  in  his  most  technical  writings  as  well,  that  Renan 
exemplifies  the  theories  here  propounded.  Indeed,  he  can 
transfer  a  passage  bodily  from  the  one  to  the  other,  as  he 
sometimes  does.^^  In  1873  he  entered  the  editorial  board 
of  the  Journal  des  Savants,  receiving,  as  he  tells  us,  not  a 
rich  pension  from  Napoleon  III,  but  500  francs  a  year,^°  a 
sum  which  he  more  than  earned  by  the  number  and  im- 
portance of  his  contributions.^^ 

Another  interest  in  these  years  was  the  reform  of  higher 
education  in  France,  a  subject  that  had  agitated  his  mind 
since  the  days  of  The  Future  of  Science.  Appearing  before 
the  Guizot  Committee  on  Higher  Education  appointed  by 

*  For  example,  *  *  La  Soci6te  berbSre, ' '  Bevue  des  deux  Mondes,  Sep- 
tember 1,  1873  (Melanges  d'histoire  et  de  voyages),  has  a  passage 
from  the  Report  of  1873,  and  "Le  Theatre  persan,"  Debats,  July  9 
and  10,  1878,  a  passage  from  the  Report  of  1878  {Nouvelles  itttdes). 

^  Feuilles  detachees,  p.  xxiii. 

"  The  Bureau  of  the  Journal  des  Savants  consisted  of  the  Minister 
of  Public  Instruction,  as  president,  and  six  assistants,  of  whom  Renan 
was  one,  selected  from  various  classes  of  the  Institut,  together  with 
a  group  of  regular  writers,  who  were  the  most  distinguished  scholars 
of  France.  Printed  at  the  Imprimerie  Nationale,  the  periodical  is  a 
monthly  journal  devoted  to  reviews  of  learned  publications  in  all 
branches  of  knowledge,  such  reviews  being  generally  almost  independent 
articles.  Almost  all  Renan 's  articles  deal  with  topics  connected  with 
bis  Origins.  Many  of  them  are  of  considerable  interest  to  non- 
specialists,  but  only  a  few  have  been  republished. 

302 


CONTINUED  PRODUCTIVITY 

Segris  in  1870,  he  had  opposed  granting  to  any  group  that 
wished  it  the  pri\'ilege  of  establishing  a  school  of  university 
grade  under  the  guise  of  freedom  of  teaching.  Such  free- 
dom, he  maintained,  could  be  procured  only  by  opening  the 
regular  courses  in  the  state  universities  to  any  properly  qual- 
ified teacher  (ordinarily  any  one  having  the  doctor's  degree) 
and  by  putting  such  courses  on  a  perfect  equality  with 
those  given  by  the  ofiBcial  professors;  in  other  words,  he 
advocated  privatdocentism.^^  During  the  winter  of  1872, 
he  was  one  of  a  group  of  about  a  dozen  scholars,  which 
included  Taine  and  Berthelot,  who  presented  to  Jules  Si- 
mon a  report  advocating  the  decentralization  of  the  uni- 
versities.^ The  next  year  liberal  hopes  were  dashed  by  the 
reaction  which  elected  MacMahon  and  placed  the  clerical 
Batbie  at  the  head  of  the  education  department.  The  law 
of  1875  allowed  any  group  of  citizens  under  fixed  conditions 
to  found  establishments  for  higher  education  alongside  of 
those  controlled  by  the  state,  and  Renan  published  in  the 
Debats  '*  his  views  as  stated  above,  defending  them  from 
the  implication  of  Germanism  by  showing  that  such  was 
the  constitution  of  the  University  of  Paris  in  the  thirteenth 
century.  From  a  letter  of  Taine  '^  we  learn  that  the  suc- 
cessor of  the  old  extra-administrative  committee  was  still 
holding  meetings  in  1876,  and  Berthelot  in  August  writes 
of  what  seems  to  have  been  its  last  conference  (August  28, 
1876).  A  detailed  report,  embodying  Renan 's  leading  prin- 
ciples of  decentralization — seven  or  eight  local  universities 
in  cities  instead  of  one  State  University,  and  freedom  of 
teaching  within  these  universities  for  all  qualified  persons 
— ^was  presented  to  Waddington,  Minister  of  Public  Instruc- 
tion, and  he  drew  up  a  project  of  law  somewhat  on  the  lines 

••Liard,  L'Enseignement  sup&rieur  en  France,  vol.  ii,  p.  305, 

"Taine,  Correspondance,  vol.  iii,  p.  160. 

•*  July  4:  see  Melanges  d'histovre  et  de  voyages. 

«To  G.  Paris,  May  17,  1876. 

303 


ERNEST  RENAN 

suggested ;  but  all  came  to  naught  in  the  political  agitations 
of  the  time.'' 

IV 

Meanwhile  Renan  continued  his  work  on  his  Origins  with- 
out intermission.  During  July  and  August,  1871,  he  visited 
the  Prince  Napoleon  at  Prangins,  on  the  Lake  of  Geneva, 
and  after  returning  to  Paris,  made  in  October  and  November 
a  trip  through  Provence,  Nice,  Genoa  and  other  cities  of 
Northern  Italy  to  Venice,  where  he  is  again  much  occupied 
with  art.'^  He  has  modified  some  of  his  judgments,  how- 
ever, since  he  has  seen  the  supreme  type  of  the  beautiful, 
the  Acropolis  at  Athens.^^  On  his  return,  he  at  once  wrote 
an  introduction  for  Ritter's  translation  of  the  Essays  of 
David  Strauss,  a  favor  promised  in  March,  1870,  when  he 
had  expected  to  meet  the  German  scholar  through  the  good 
offices  of  his  Swiss  friend.  In  performing  this  task  Renan 
not  only  said,  but  showed,  that  he  did  not  believe  in  allow- 
ing a  political  break  to  injure  scientific  and  philosophical 
relations. 

In  1872,  after  again  paying  his  respects  to  the  Prince 
Napoleon  late  in  September,  he  crossed  the  Simplon,  was 

"Liard,  Vol.  II,  Book  viii,  Chapter  II,  and  Appendix,  where  the 
Report,  probably  in  part  the  work  of  Renan,  and  the  Project  are 
printed. 

"See  letters  to  Ritter  and  Berthelot.  In  the  Berthelot  Corre- 
spondance,  letter  ix,  p.  411,  ought  to  be  dated  1871,  as  letter  x,  follow- 
ing, is  clearly  an  answer  to  it.  On  the  other  hand,  letter  viii,  p.  408, 
should  precede  letter  iii,  p.  428,  which  is  an  answer  to  it,  and  should 
be  dated  1872.  The  route  followed  in  letter  viii  is  not  to  be  har- 
monized with  that  of  letter  ix.  In  1871,  moreover,  Renan  was  present 
and  spoke  at  a  meeting  of  the  Academie  des  Inscriptions  on  October 
13.  He  could  not,  therefore,  have  been  in  Florence  October  7  and 
then  gone  on  to  Rome.  Furthermore,  he  says  he  had  been  in  Italy 
twenty-three  years  before,  whereas,  writing  to  Ritter  in  1871,  he  says 
twenty-two  years.  The  allusion  in  letter  viii  to  Gambetta's  speeches 
refers  to  that  statesman's  tour  of  1872  and  the  reference  to  the  meet- 
ing of  the  three  emperors  is  decisive  for  this  date,  aa  the  conference 
occurred  in  August,  1872. 

**  To  Ritter^  Novejnbej-  29,  1871. 

304 


CONTINUED  PRODUCTIVITY 

enchanted  with  Lago  Maggiore,  and  then  passed  on  through 
the  Apennines  to  Florence  and  Rome.  At  Rome  he  read 
the  proofs  of  The  Antichrist.  "It  will  take  me  about  four 
months  to  correct  and  retouch  it  all,"  he  writes.^®  "It  will 
not  appear  before  April."  In  April,  however,  he  was  still 
busy  with  his  work,  writing  Bersot  (April  1,  1873),  "For 
six  weeks  I  shall  be  wholly  given  to  my  Antichrist.  Im- 
possible to  steal  an  hour  from  it. "  *°  It  was,  in  fact,  June 
before  the  book  appeared. 

On  June  18,  1873,  Taine  wrote : " 

I  have  received  The  Antichrist  of  Renan ;  it  is  interesting,  lofty, 
and  the  erudition  is  enormous;  but  the  fault  of  the  subject  is 
always  there;  the  documents  are  lacking,  there  are  too  many 
gaps  and  conjectures;  he  stretches  a  text  like  a  metal  wire  until 
he  makes  it  infinitely  thin  and  fragile.  And  then,  all  those  early 
Christians  have  such  weak  brains,  so  like  the  Methodists  of  the 
populace,  the  blubbering  converted  negroes  of  America,  that  one 
becomes  weary  of  their  jeremiads  and  their  hallucinations.  What 
a  pity  that  he  did  not  write  the  history  of  the  Caesars  from 
Augustus  to  Nero.  Here  the  documents  are  sufficient  and  the 
human  element  is  interesting;  the  real  interest  in  his  book  is  in 
what  he  says  of  Nero,  of  Rome  and  of  the  taking  of  Jerusalem. 

The  admiration  of  Renan  and  Taine  for  one  another  did 
not  hinder  frank  dissatisfaction  with  the  character  of  each 
other's  work. 

The  summer  of  1873  was  spent  at  Sevres,  but  the  next 
year  Renan  again  took  a  trip  through  Switzerland  to  North- 
ern Italy.  From  Venice  he  sent  his  "Letter  to  Flaubert 
concerning  the  Temptation  of  Saint  Anthony,"  ^'^  Septem- 
ber 8,  in  which  he  expresses  his  scorn  for  the  pedants  who 


"To  Ritter,  December  7,  1872. 

^Bersot  et  ses  amis,  p.  267.  To  Ritter  he  had  written,  March  13, 
1873,  that  the  correction  of  the  proof  took  day  and  night,  and  would 
occupy  from  six  weeks  to  two  months  more. 

*^  Correspondance,  voL  iii,  231. 

**Feuilles  d6tach^e9. 

305 


ERNEST  RENAN 

demand  moral  and  political  aims  from  a  work  of  imagina- 
tion. The  little  that  Renan  published  during  these  two 
years  is  not  of  much  import.  ' '  Phoenician  Art "  *^  is  noth- 
ing but  the  conclusion  of  his  Phcenidan  Mission  (1874) ; 
*  *  Berber  Society "  **  is  a  mere  abstract  from  a  book  on 
Algiers.  ' '  The  Religious  Crisis  in  Europe, "  *^  an  essay  on 
current  affairs,  is  a  clear  statement  of  the  conflict  between 
the  doctrine  of  papal  infallibility  and  the  Prussian  idea  of 
the  state.  Here  the  chief  interest  lies  in  Renan 's  solution, 
liberty  for  the  individual,  whether  Catholic  or  non-Catholic. 
"Liberty,"  he  says,  "is  reciprocal;  when  it  is  desired  for 
oneself,  it  must  be  admitted  for  others."  It  is  an  end,  not 
a  means.  And,  though  the  liberal  party  is  the  most  com- 
pletely discredited  in  Europe,  its  policies  must  in  the  end 
be  adopted,  being  the  only  just,  nay,  the  only  wise  ones. 
One  of  the  few  features  Renan  ever  finds  to  praise  about 
the  United  States  is  its  policy  toward  religion.*^ 

In  this  article,  as  often  elsewhere,  Renan  looks  forward 
to  a  schism  in  the  Catholic  Church  and  the  election  of  rival 
popes.  The  same  motive  appears  in  his  eulogy  of  Athanase 
Coquerel,*'^  for  his  effort  to  establish  a  less  narrow  Protes- 
tantism. The  principal  thought  is  here  embodied  in  four 
propositions:  (1)  The  appearance  of  a  new  religion  is  an 
impossibility;  (2)  the  present  religions  are  not  destined  to 
disappear,  leaving  humanity  without  religious  forms;  (3) 
the  established  worship  cannot  remain  without  reforms  and 
new  interpretations;  (4)  it  follows  that  both  Catholicism 
and  Protestantism  will  give  birth  to  churches  which,  without 


"  Gazette  des  Beaux-Arts,  May  1,  1873. 

**Bevue  des  deux  Mondes,  September  1,  1873. 

"Ibid.,  February,  1874. 

*"* Berber  Society"  E«nan  thought  it  worth  while  to  publish  in 
Melanges  d'histoire  et  de  voyages.  The  other  two  pieces  were  re- 
printed in  the  posthumous  volume,  Melanges  religieux  et  historiques. 

""lie  protestantisme  liberal,"  Debats,  September  23,  1876:  Me- 
langes religieux  et  historiques. 

m 


CONTINUED  PRODUCTIVITY 

breaking  with  the  past,  will  seek  better  to  answer  the  needs 
of  the  present.  Whether  or  not  Renan  was  a  good  ecclesi- 
astical prophet,  the  future  only  can  tell. 

In  1875  R^nan,  officially  representing  the  College  de 
France,  delivered  one  of  the  main  addresses  and  several 
subsidiary  speeches  at  the  tercentenary  of  the  University  of 
Leyden  (February  18)."  On  March  1,  he  for  the  first  time 
published  a  chapter  of  the  Origins  in  the  Revue  des  deux 
Mondes.*^  There  are  now  several  indications  of  the  pre- 
mature old  age  that  was  coming  upon  him,  as  it  came  upon 
so  many  of  his  friends.  Both  Taine  and  Sainte-Beuve  were 
old  men  at  fifty.  In  August  he  went  to  Houlgate  on  the 
coast  of  Normandy,  suffering  severely  from  rheumatism  and 
unwilling  "to  accept  a  diminution  of  life."  Here,  as  a 
diversion,  he  revised  his  Philosophic  Dialogues,  published,  to 
the  accompaniment  of  much  objurgation  at  their  supposed 
cynicism,  the  next  May,  In  fact,  there  was  nothing  in  them 
that  he  had  not  said  before,  though  put  in  a  different  form.** 

On  the  invitation  of  Michele  Amari,  scholar  and  states- 
man, and  formerly  a  colleague  at  the  Bibliotheque,  Renan 
started  from  Normandy  for  Palermo  to  attend  a  philological 
congress,  embarking  at  Genoa  in  company  with  Gaston  Paris 
on  August  24.  After  the  meetings,  he,  with  a  company  of 
others,  was  rushed  over  Sicily  on  a  ten-day  sleepless  ar- 
chaeological expedition.  Received  everywhere  with  speeches 
and  ovations,  he  was  particularly  singled  out  for  popular 
enthusiasm,  because,  having  been  for  years  a  subject  of 


*  See  Beviie  des  deux  Mondes,  March  1,  1875. 

*•  The  article,  entitled  "  L 'Apocalypse  de  I'an  97 — Le  dernier 
proph^te  des  Juifs, "  consists  of  a  passage  from  the  midst  of  Chapter 
xvi,  provided  with  an  introduction,  a  conclusion,  and  various  inserted 
phrases  and  paragraphs  to  adapt  it  to   its  independent  publication. 

"In  the  preface  he  says:  "I  shall  later  publish  an  essay,  entitled 
The  Future  of  Science,  that  I  composed  in  1848  and  1849,  much  more 
consoling  than  this,  and  which  will  better  please  those  attached  to  the 
democratic  religion.  The  reaction  of  1850-1851  and  the  Coup  d'£tat 
inspired  me  with  a  pessimism  of  which  I  am  not  yet  cured." 

307 


ERNEST  RENAN 

hostile  sermons,  he  had  become  a  sort  of  legend  and  people 
were  astonished  and  delighted  to  see  it  alive.  These  ex- 
periences are  related  in  an  article  in  the  Revue  des  deux 
Mondes  in  the  form  of  a  personal  letter  to  the  director,  dated 
Ischia,  September  20.^^  Although  Renan  had  previously 
written  rather  intimate  prefaces,  this  was  the  first  pub- 
lished article  in  which  he  talked  about  himself  to  the  public 
as  frankly  as  he  would  to  familiar  friends.  He  tells  of 
his  rheumatism.  "For  the  first  time  I  thought  of  old  age. 
I  complained  that  it  was  premature,  though  realizing  that, 
since  my  essential  work  was  nearly  completed,  I  ought  to 
count  myself  among  those  favored  by  fate."  "My  stiff  leg 
and  dragging  foot  did  not  once  refuse  the  hardest  work. 
The  malady  was  not  cured,  but  forgotten."  We  approach 
the  frankness  and  charm  of  the  Recollections.  What  delight- 
ful descriptions,  reminiscences,  reflections,  side  remarks! 
What  sharp  eyes !  What  trained  artistic  appreciation !  But 
Sicily  does  not,  after  all,  offer  the  best  in  art.  * '  Every  trip, 
every  investigation,  every  new  study,  is  thus  a  hymn  to 
Athens, ' '  ''^  The  trip  was  rounded  out  by  three  weeks  in 
Ischia  and  the  remainder  of  October  in  Rome. 

Familiar  talk  with  the  public  was  continued  in  1876  with 
the  publication  in  the  Revue  des  deux  Mondes  of  the  first 
two  chapters  of  the  Recollections  of  Childhood  and  Yauth.^^ 
Like  his  mother,  to  whom  he  owed  several  of  his  stories, 
the  aging  Renan  allowed  his  mind  to  voyage  back  to  his 
early  home,  a  region  softened  and  beautified  by  distance, 
peopled  with  persons  who  become  altogether  attractive  in 
the  indulgent  and  good-humored  view  of  a  tranquil  old  agfe. 
The  scenes  are  realized  with  consummate  art,  and  yet  poet- 

"  November  15:  "Vingt  jours  en  Sicile:  le  Congrfes  de  Palerme.'* 
Melanges  d'Mstoire  et   de  voyages. 

"The  same  remark  occurs  in  "Phoenician  Art." 

"  March  15,  ' '  Le  Broyeur  de  lin  " ;  December  1,  ' '  PriSre  sur  1  'Acro- 
pole.  Le  Bonhomme  Systfeme  et  la  petite  Noemi. "  These  are  repub- 
lished with  no  changes,  excepting  here  and  there  a  word. 

308 


CONTINUED  PRODUCTIVITY 

ized  by  the  detachment  of  revery.  Most  readers  would  be 
■willing  to  sacrifice  a  volume  or  two  of  the  histories  for  an- 
other group  of  these  fascinating  reminiscences.  The  moment 
was  precious.  Delightful  as  are  the  later  papers  on  life  at 
the  seminary,  they  have  not  precisely  the  same  touch  as  these. 

Such  literary  recreations  were  never  allowed  to  distract 
Kenan's  attention  from  his  main  task.  In  June,  1877,  was 
published  The  Gospels,  fifth  volume  of  the  Origins.  He  had 
expected  this  to  be  the  last,  but  the  work  grew  as  he  pro- 
gressed, and  one  more  seemed  now  to  be  necessary;  two 
were  actually  required.  After  the  climax  of  interest  in 
The  Antichrist,  the  present  volume  seems  to  mark  a  decline, 
from  which  we  do  not  completely  rise  until  we  reach  Marcus 
Aurelvus. 

For  over  three  years  after  1876,  Renan  contributed  noth- 
ing to  the  Revue  des  deux  Mondes  but  a  brief  tribute  to  the 
high-minded  and  sympathetic  Queen  Sophie  of  Holland,^* 
who  loved  both  France  and  Germany  for  what  was  noble  in 
each  and  who  suffered  because  her  aspiration  for  German 
unity  had  been  achieved  by  the  brutal  negation  of  every 
ideal  principle.  This  little  essay  is  one  of  a  group  of  three, 
each  a  gem  of  chivalrous  and  intellectual  homage,  which 
celebrate  remarkable  women  of  Renan 's  acquaintance.  The 
other  two  enshrine  the  rare  spirit,  noble  heart,  philosophic 
mind  and  rich  nature  of  Mme.  Hortense  Cornu,  beneficent 
and  liberal  influence  on  Napoleon  III  (June  17,  1875),  and 
the  sonorous  soul  of  George  Sand,  whose  works  are  the  echo 
of  the  century  and  whose  death  seems  to  bring  about  a 
diminution  of  humanity.^^  An  exquisite  delicacy  of  feeling, 
a  perfect  appropriateness  of  touch  puts  these  little  com- 
positions in  a  class  by  themselves. 

••June  15,  1877,  two  and  a  half  pages  in  the  Chronique,  without 
heading,  between  the  political  review  and  a  book  notice. 

"Letter  to  the  editor  of  Le  Temps,  June  11,  1876.  AH  three  in 
FetnUles  detachSes. 

309 


ERNEST  RENAN 

The  death  of  the  Queen  of  Holland  closely  followed  the 
two  hundredth  anniversary  of  the  death  of  Spinoza  (Feb- 
ruary 12,  1877),  at  which  Renan  delivered  the  principal 
address.^^  This  is  a  psean  to  reason,  liberty  and  the  ideal, 
based  upon  the  humble,  pious,  kindly  life  and  the  lofty  and 
fearless  thought  of  the  man  who  in  his  age  "had  seen  most 
deeply  into  God. ' '  All  the  qualities  that  Renan  admired  in 
a  scholar  and  thinker — "his  life  was  a  masterpiece  of  good 
sense  and  judgment" — ^were  united  in  Spinoza,  and  if  this 
discourse  is  inferior  to  the  essay  on  Saint  Francis,  it  is  partly 
because  the  author  was  hampered  by  the  requirements  of  an 
oration  for  a  specific  occasion.  Instead  of  attenuating  his 
customary  ideas  on  such  matters  as  religion,  dogmatism  and 
the  supernatural,  he  rather  overemphasized  them,  though 
never  offensively,  and  a  certain  formality  interferes  with 
his  natural  ease.  The  piece  is  nevertheless  a  noble  tribute, 
and  worthy  to  open  the  long  series  of  eulogies  delivered 
during  the  next  fifteen  years. 


In  every  direction  we  thus  find  the  beginnings  of  the 
activities  that  occupied  Renan 's  final  period.  Unhappily  we 
also  meet  the  infirmities  that  tormented  his  physical  decline. 
On  March  24,  1877,  Grant  Duff  saw  him  on  the  upper  floor 
of  the  Hotel  Prince  of  Monaco,  suffering  cruelly  from  rheu- 
matism. In  April  Ritter,  visiting  Paris,  finds  him  "aged 
in  face,  but  always  amiable,  gracious  and  charming. ' '  ^'^  The 
Swiss  disciple  visits  the  lecture  room:  "Yesterday  I  heard 
Renan  at  the  College  de  France:  delightful,  incomparable 
hour!"  (April  26.)  Later  the  master  explained  the  six- 
teenth Psalm,  an  interpretation  of  "such  scientific  exacti- 

"  Published  separately  in  pamphlet  form  by  Calmann  L6vy,  as  were 
many  of  Renan 's  addresses;  then  in  Nouvelles  Mudes  d'Mstoire  re- 
ligieuse,  1884. 

"  Letter,  April  25. 

310 


CONTINUED  PRODUCTIVITY 

tude  and  psychological  depth,"  (May  8.)  All  the  tes- 
timony shows  that,  while  Renan  might  easily  have  attracted 
crowds  by  giving  as  courses  his  books  in  advance  of  publica- 
tion, a  common  professorial  custom,  he  confined  his  appeal 
to  a  small  number  of  real  students  by  presenting  strictly 
scientific  and  philological  matter.  He  chose  the  small  room 
of  Burnouf  and  Silvestre  de  Sacy  and  with  a  little  group 
seated  around  a  table,  he  conducted  what  he  called  a  labora- 
tory, once  a  week  explaining  a  Bible  text,  and  giving  his 
second  lesson  to  inscriptions,  in  order  to  provoke  the  spirit 
of  research.  Though  a  kindly  and  encouraging  teacher,  he 
was  also  severe,  being  pitiless  toward  hardy  and  fantastic 
translation,  and  the  explanation  of  the  uncertain  by  the 
uncertain,  dbscuruon  per  obscurius,  as  he  said.  Yet  his 
criticism  was  not  of  the  geometric  order,  but  sprang  from 
sentiment  founded  on  full  knowledge.'^* 

In  the  summer  of  1877,  the  previous  vacation  having  been 
passed  at  Sevres,  Kenan's  rheumatism  drove  him  to  Ischia, 
to  take  the  baths  at  Casamicciola,  the  trip  being  made  by 
sea  from  Genoa.  The  next  summer  he  traveled  through 
the  Vosges,  and  by  Bale,  Constance,  Innsbruck,  the  Tyrol 
to  Venice  and  Florence,  where  he  attended  a  congress  of 
Orientalists  presided  over  by  his  friend  Amari.  In  1879  he 
was  again  at  Ischia,  having  visited  Taine  at  his  place  on 
Lake  Annecy  on  the  way  down.  Taine  had  become  too  much 
of  a  country  gentleman,  incapable  of  judging  the  great 
things  of  the  past.  ' '  He  read  me  parts  of  his  Jacobins.  Al- 
most everything  is  true  in  detail ;  only  thLs  is  but  a  quarter 
of  the  truth.  He  shows  that  all  those  things  were  wretched, 
horrible  and  shameful ;  it  should  be  shown  at  the  same  time 
that  they  were  grandiose,  heroic,  sublime. "  ^*    In  their  mu- 

"  Article  by  Philippe  Berger  in  Debats,  October  7,  1892,  and  "Ernest 
Henan  et  la  chaire  d'h^breu  au  College  de  France"  by  the  same,  in 
Bevue  de   I'histoire  des  religions,  voL  28. 

«•  To  Berthelot,  August  17,  1879. 

3U 


ERNEST  UENAN 

tual  criticisms  Renan  and  Taine  patently  display  their  basic 
tendencies.  They  love  and  admire  one  another,  but  neither 
can  be  quite  satisfied  with  the  other's  work. 

The  summers  of  1877  and  1879  at  Ischia  inspired  the  last 
great  original  stroke  of  Renan 's  genius,  the  philosophic 
dramas,  Caliban  and  L'Eaxw  de  jouvence.  Of  the  first,  he 
says :  "I  wrote  it  at  Ischia  during  the  morning  hours,  when 
the  vines  were  covered  with  dew  and  the  sea  was  like  whitish 
watered  silk.  The  philosophy  appropriate  for  such  hours 
of  repose  is  that  of  the  crickets  and  the  larks,  who  have 
never,  I  think,  doubted  that  the  light  of  the  sun  is  sweet, 
life  a  beneficent  gift  and  the  living  earth  a  truly  agreeable 
place  of  sojourn. ' '  ^°  Two  years  later  the  same  surroundings 
recalled  the  same  thoughts:  "I  began  to  live  again  with 
Caliban,  Prospero,  Ariel.  These  loved  images  set  about 
talking  to  one  another  anew  within  me;  their  dialogues 
made  me  pass  an  agreeable  month ;  combined  with  the  oven 
of  the  Epomeo  and  the  pure  air  of  Ischia,  they  almost  de- 
livered me  from  the  pains  each  winter  brings  to  seize  upon 
me. ' '  "^  The  delight  with  which  these  pieces  were  written, 
combined  with  the  striking  originality  of  the  situations 
invented,  constitute  a  major  portion  of  their  charm.^^ 

In  February,  1878,  appeared  Miscellanies  of  History  and 
Travel,  a  collection  of  articles  which  had  been  published  in 
periodicals  during  the  previous  thirty  years.^^  The  preface 
marks  his  reconciliation  with  the  Republic,  or  rather,  a  gen- 
eral indulgence  for  a  flabby  government  that  will  do  nothing 
very  good  or  very  bad,  and  that  will  find  its  safety  in  a 

"  Preface,   Caliban. 

"*  Preface,  I'Eau  de  jowvence. 

"""I  have  finished  my  sequel  to  Caliban,  which  I  name  I'Eau  de 
jouvence,  so  as  not  to  call  it  I'Eau  de  vie.  ...  I  will  read  it  to  you 
when  I  come.  At  any  rate,  the  composition  of  it  has  entertained  me 
immensely."     To  Berthelot,  September  12,  1879. 

^  1847-1877.  In  a  footnote  Renan  remarks  that  nothing  worth 
publishing  remains  from  the  period  preceding  3852  excepting  The 
Future  of  Science. 

312 


CONTINUED  PRODUCTIVITY 

sort  of  universal  demoralization,  the  Americanism  toward 
which  the  whole  world  is  irresistibly  tending.  He  repeats 
his  counsel  to  young  scholars,  given  in  his  annual  reports 
to  the  Societe  Asiatique,  summarizes  the  political  ideas  of 
Intellectual  and  Moral  Reform,  reviews  the  abortive  attempts 
at  the  restoration  of  monarchy  in  France,  and  sees  no  pos- 
sibility that  things  should  be  different  from  what  they  are. 
"Let  us  then  enjoy  and  profit  by  the  present,"  he  concludes: 
"it  is  good  and  agreeable.  Let  us  all  endeavor  to  outdo 
ourselves.  Let  us  not  sulk  at  our  country  when  she  does 
not  agree  with  us.  Perhaps,  after  all,  it  is  she  that  is  right. 
Poor  France!  malo  tecum  errare  quam  cum  ceteris  recte 
sa>pere." 

Many  of  Kenan's  prophecies  are  neither  better  nor  worse 
than  those  of  others  in  his  circle  of  friends,  but  when  he  con- 
templated great  currents,  instead  of  isolated  incidents,  he  is 
worthy  of  attention.  "Patriotism,"  he  writes  Berthelot 
(September  10,  1878),  "as  understood  to-day,  is  a  fashion 
that  will  last  fifty  years.  In  a  century,  after  it  has  covered 
Europe  with  blood,  it  will  be  understood  no  more  than  we 
understand  the  purely  dynastic  spirit  of  the  seventeenth 
and  eighteenth  centuries.  All  is  vanity,  excepting  science ; 
even  art  begins  to  seem  to  me  a  little  empty.  My  impressions 
of  twenty-five  years  ago  seem  marked  by  a  sort  of  child- 
ishness. ' ' 

It  is  interesting  to  observe  how  Kenan's  political  dis- 
content had  varied  with  the  occupant  of  the  Ministry  of 
Public  Instruction.  In  1873,  he  is  glad  he  has  no  political 
responsibility;  in  1875,  both  he  and  Berthelot  are  much 
discouraged  over  reaction;  in  1877,  they  are  almost  in  de- 
spair.®* In  1878,  Bardoux  was  appointed  Minister  and 
the  University  felt  free  again.  On  December  4,  Kenan  wrote 
that  things  were  going  badly,  particularly  in  the  education 

**See  Berthelot  letters. 

313 


ERNEST  RENAN 

department,  but  they  get  along  somehow,  adding :  "After  all 
that  we  have  been  through,  we  ought  not  to  be  hard  to 
satisfy."  The  greatest  danger  lay  in  violent  party  conflicts 
leading  to  disruption.  "I  sincerely  believe,"  he  writes  (De- 
cember 24,  1878),  "that  the  development  of  republican  in- 
stitutions is  the  only  course  possible  for  our  country.  But 
I  believe  also  that  the  true  mode  of  serving  the  Republic 
is  to  proceed  with  great  moderation  and  with  an  ardent 
desire  for  conciliation.  Concord,  as  far  as  it  is  possible,  is 
what  is  most  necessary  for  France. ' '  ''^  The  famous  Article 
VII  of  Jules  Perry 's  education  law,  forbidding  unauthorized 
congregations  to  teach,  seemed  to  Renan  "an  enormous 
fault. "«« 

VI 

The  contrast  between  bigotry  and  liberalism  is  strongly 
accentuated  in  two  features  of  Renan 's  biography  during 
the  year  1878.  On  the  one  hand,  Bardoux  proposed  him 
for  Officer  of  the  Legion  of  Honor,  but  MacMahon  refused 
to  sign  the  decree  f^  on  the  other  hand,  he  was  elected  to  a 
seat  in  the  French  Academy.  This  election  was  chiefly  due 
to  the  efforts  of  his  friend  Ustazade  Silvestre  de  Sacy.  The 
spectacle  of  these  contests  is  by  no  means  edifying.  Intrigue 
and  influence  of  every  kind  were  brought  to  bear  on  the 
members  voting,  and  the  discussion  of  the  candidates'  merits 
in  general  meeting  sometimes  degenerated  into  unseemly 
squabbles.  At  this  time  two  seats  were  vacant,  that  of 
Thiers  (died  September  3,  1877)  and  that  of  Claude  Ber- 
nard (died  February  10,  1878).  Alexandre  Dumas  had 
induced  Taine  to  present  himself  for  one  of  these  places. 


"Strauss,  Politique,  p.  321. 

"To  Berthelot,  August  17,  1879. 

"Eenan  was  made  officer  July  12,  1880,  and  afterward  became  com- 
mander, grand-officer,  and  member  of  the  council,  DSbats,  October  3, 
1892. 

314 


THE  ACADEMY 

while  Renan  was  to  stand  for  the  other,  Taine,  of  course, 
being  unwilling  to  enter  the  contest  against  his  friend. 
When  Henri  Martin  announced  his  candidacy  for  the  chair 
of  Thiers,  Renan,  on  account  of  friendship,  selected  the 
other,  though  even  here  he  disliked  having  Wallon,  per- 
petual secretary  of  the  Academy  of  Inscriptions,  as  his 
competitor.  Both  he  and  Taine,  though  making  the  cus- 
tomary visits,  were  utterly  dissatisfied  with  the  academic 
procedure.  "It  would  be  better  for  my  success,"  said  Re- 
nan, "if  I  had  never  written  anything."** 

At  the  discussion  on  June  11,  de  Sacy  spoke  in  such  a 
lively,  frank  and  natural  way,  that  his  words  were  long 
remembered.  "M.  Renan,  they  say,  is  a  heretic  on  certain 
points;  I  don't  deny  it.  But  who  of  you,  I  wonder,  is  not 
a  bit  heretical.  You,  M.  de  Montalembert,  do  you  know 
that,  if  I  were  inquisitor,  I  could  find  in  you,  without  look- 
ing very  far,  enough  to  bum  you?  You,  M.  de  Broglie,  is 
your  belief  in  the  supernatural  perfectly  orthodox?  You, 
M.  de  Falloux,  are  you  in  the  flock  a  perfectly  docile  sheep?" 
And  his  final  words  were:  "Let  us  pardon  one  another  our 
heresies."  Such  is  Renan 's  report  in  1889,  based  on  what 
had  been  told  him.®^  Montalembert,  de  Broglie  and  Fal- 
loux were  probably  not  won  over,  but  Renan  had  enough 
friends  and  colleagues  in  the  Academy  to  secure  his  election 
on  June  13  by  nineteen  votes  against  Wallon 's  fifteen.^" 
De  Sacy  did  not  live  to  see  his  protege's  reception,  as  he 
died  February  14,  1879. 

By  December  Renan 's  speech  for  the  Academy  was  com- 
pleted and  placed  in  the  hands  of  Mezieres,  who  was  to  de- 
liver the  address  of  welcome.  Their  subject,  Claude  Ber- 
nard, was  beyond  their  usual  field  of  study,  and  it  is  en- 


*See  Taine 's  letters  of  April  and  May,  1878. 
"  FeuUles  detachees,  p.  139. 

"Taine  was  defested  by  Henri  Martin,  but  elected  November  14 
in  place  of  Lomenie,  who  bad  died  April  2. 

315 


ERNEST  RENAN 

tertaining  to  observe  the  eagerness  of  both  for  Berthelot's 
return  to  Paris,  from  which  he  was  then  absent  on  a  trip, 
so  that  they  may  submit  their  compositions  to  him  for 
scientific  rectifications.  So  good  a  tutor  assures  us  that 
the  statements  in  the  speeches  are  technically  correct/^ 

The  reception  which  took  place  April  3,  1879,  was  a 
literary  event  of  the  highest  importance.  Victor  Hugo  and 
Jules  Simon  were  Renan  's  sponsors.  The  public,  of  course, 
crowded  the  hall,  leaving  little  space  for  the  academicians. 
Fashion  as  well  as  intellect  was  represented;  the  feminine 
element  was  conspicuous,  and  spring  toilettes  were  remarked 
by  the  reporters.  The  seance  was  very  long,  for  Renan 
read  for  about  two  hours,  yet  Mezieres  was  listened  to  and 
applauded  to  the  end.'^^ 

Describing  the  occasion  in  the  Temps,  Scherer  finds  that 
it  marks  a  change  in  the  spirit  that  had  dominated  the 
Academy  for  thirty  years  and  that  it  was  characterized 
by  an  unaccustomed  liberty,  tolerance  and  courtesy.  No 
longer  ruled  by  political  and  religious  passions,  the  ma- 
jority was  ready  to  open  the  doors  to  literary  merit  without 
asking  its  certificate  of  confession,  quite  in  contrast  to  Mgr. 
Dupanloup's  angry  resignation  because  Littre  had  finally 
entered.  And  Renan  did  not  have  to  conceal  his  views.  He 
expressed  himself  with  perfect  freedom  before  his  new  col- 
leagues. M.  Mezieres,  too,  had  not  felt  obliged  to  enter  a 
solemn  protest  against  the  heresies  uttered.  He  discussed 
them  simply,  without  declamation,  as  one  who  recognized  in 
others  the  right  to  think  otherwise  than  himself.'^' 

The  dominant  tone  is  struck  by  Renan  in  the  opening 
words  of  his  address: 

"Letters  to  Berthelot,  December  4  and  17,  1878. 

"Debats,  April  4,  1879,  report  by  Francis  Charmes. 

'"Etudes  sur  la  Utterature  contemporaine,  vol.  vii.  A  delightful 
account  of  the  reception  by  G.  Valbert  in  the  Eevue  des  deux  Mondes 
also  emphasizes  the  spirit  of  courtesy  and  conciliation  displayed  on 
this  occasion, 

316 


THE  ACADEMY 

The  great  Cardinal  Richelieu,  like  all  men  who  have  left  in 
history  the  mark  of  their  passage,  came  to  found  many  things  that 
he  did  not  dream  of,  and  even  some  that  he  only  half  desired.  I  do 
not  know,  for  example,  that  he  cared  much  for  what  we  to-day 
call  reciprocal  tolerance  and  liberty  of  thought.  Deference  for 
ideas  other  than  his  own  was  not  his  dominant  virtue,  and  as  for 
liberty,  its  place  does  not  seem  to  have  been  indicated  in  the 
edifice  he  erected.  And  yet,  after  two  hundred  and  fifty  years, 
the  rigid  founder  of  French  unity  is  seen,  in  a  sense  very  real,  to 
have  been  the  instigator  of  principles  that  he  would  perhaps  have 
vigorously  combated,  if  he  had  seen  them  develop  in  his  lifetime. 
...  To  bring  men  together  is  almost  to  reeoucile  them;  it  is  at 
least  to  render  the  human  spirit  the  most  signal  of  services,  sincel 
the  pacific  work  of  civilization  results  from  contradictory  elements, 
maintained  face  to  face,  obliged  to  tolerate  one  another,  and  drawn 
on  to  mutual  comprehension  and  almost  love. 

Renan  proceeds  to  express  his  entire  self  in  the  masterly 
discourse  that  follows:  We  find  his  view  that  civilization 
results  from  contradictory  elements,  but  at  the  sununits 
opposing  forces  make  peace;  his  lofty  conception  of  the 
Academy  as  the  union  of  all  talents,  introducing  a  graceful 
word  of  thanks  for  his  election;  his  conviction  that  seven- 
teenth-century French  is  sufficient  for  all  purposes  and 
that  style  is  thought;  his  fixed  ideas  of  the  function  of 
the  College  de  France  as  the  nursery  of  science ;  and  above 
all,  his  exaltation  of  science  itself  as  the  greatest  achieve- 
ment of  man,  the  triumph  of  science  being  the  triumph  of 
idealism.  The  life  of  Claude  Bernard,  whose  eulogy  was 
his  chief  subject,  is  told  in  vivid  incidents  mingled  with 
apt  reflections.  The  technical  scientific  discoveries  of  the 
great  physician  are  by  rapid  summary  and  metaphor  ren- 
dered popular  without  losing  their  scientific  exactness.  **By 
the  side  of  the  central  system,  he  found  as  it  were  pro- 
vincial autonomies,  local  circulations. "  "In  his  bold  march 
toward  the  final  secrets  of  animated  nature,  he  came  to 
the  confines  of  life,  to  the  obscure  sources  of  the  organ- 
ism.    Little  by  little,  the  difference  between  animal  and 

317 


ERNEST  RENAN 

vegetable  physiology  vanished  before  his  eyes.  The  germ 
of  life  in  both  seemed  to  him  the  same."  The  determinism 
of  Claude  Bernard  is  insisted  upon,  as  well  as  the  hap- 
piness of  the  investigator.  All  Kenan's  pet  ideas  are  here 
delightfully,  as  in  some  of  his  former  essays,  deduced  from 
an  individual  personality.  For  example  style:  ** Human 
intelligence  is  a  combination  so  bound  together  in  all  its 
parts  that  a  great  mind  is  always  a  good  writer " ;  or  medi- 
cine as  the  advance  guard  of  science:  "If  humanity  had 
always  enjoyed  good  health,  science  and  philosophy  would 
twenty  times  over  have  died  of  hunger." 
In  conclusion  he  expresses  his  faith: 

Reality  always  surpasses  the  ideas  we  have  of  it;  every  effort 
of  imagination  is  flat  in  comparison.  As  science,  in  destroying 
an  infantile  material  world  has  given  us  a  world  a  thousand  times 
more  beautiful,  so  also  the  disappearance  of  a  few  dreams  willl 
only  serve  to  give  the  ideal  world  vaster  sublimity.  As  for  my- 
self, I  have  invincible  confidence  in  the  goodness  of  the  thought 
that  has  made  the  universe.  .  .  .  The  purest  worship  of  Divinity 
is  often  concealed  behind  apparent  negations.  .  .  .  How  many 
saints  under  the  guise  of  irreligion!  .  .  .  Reason  triumphs  over 
death,  and  to  work  for  reason  is  to  work  for  eternity.  .  .  .  Such 
thoughts  rejuvenate;  they  lend  themselves  to  talent,  create  it 
and  invoke  it.  You  who  judge  things  by  the  spark  they  fling  off, 
by  the  phrases  they  provoke,  you  have,  after  all,  a  good  means 
of  discrimination.  The  talent  inspired  by  a  doctrine  is  in  many 
respects  the  measure  of  its  truth.  It  is  not  without  reason  that 
one  cannot  be  a  great  poet  without  idealism,  a  great  artist  with- 
out faith  and  love,  an  excellent  writer  without  logic,  an  eloquent 
orator  without  a  passion  for  goodness  and  liberty." 

"Some  journalists  considered  this  final  passage  a  mere  piece  of 
academic  flattery,  but  it  really  expressed  one  of  Kenan's  fixed  ideas. 
Compare  the  following  from  Averroes :  "As  the  syllogism  excludes 
every  nuance,  and  as  truth  resides  wholly  in  the  nuance,  the  syllogism 
is  a  useless  instrument  for  finding  truth  in  the  moral  sciences.  Pene- 
tration, suppleness,  varied  culture  of  mind  are  the  true  logic.  The 
form  in  philosophy  is  at  least  as  important  as  the  substance;  the  turn 
given  the  thought  is  the  only  demonstration  possible,  and  it  is  true 
in  a  sense  to  say  that  the  Humanists  of  the  Renaissance,  apparently 
occupied  uniquely  in  saying  things  well,  were  more  truly  philosophic 

318 


THE  ACADEMY 

To  the  author  of  The  Life  of  Jestis,  as  Renan  was  then 
generally  called,  a  subject  of  scandal,  "a  malefactor  of  the 
intellect,"  Mezieres  replied  with  a  grace  and  delicacy  that 
the  subject  himself  could  not  have  surpassed.  He  recalled 
the  years  when  the  young  scholar  lived  with  his  sister  in 
the  rue  du  Val-de-Grace :  *  *  Mile.  Henriette  Renan  who  has 
left  you  the  recollection  of  an  exquisite  writer  and  critic, 
deserves  to  be  named  along  with  you,  the  day  when  the 
brother  she  so  loved  and  for  whose  glory  she  labored,  re- 
ceives the  highest  of  literary  rewards."  In  treating  the 
Origins  of  Christiamty,  he  introduced  his  criticism  by  say- 
ing :  "  It  is  the  capital  work  of  your  life ;  I  should  disap- 
point the  Academy  if  I  spoke  of  it  with  too  much  reserve. 
Excessive  precaution  would  be  worthy  neither  of  you  nor 
of  the  company  that  did  itself  the  honor  to  elect  you.  You 
will  pardon  me  for  approaching  so  great  a  subject  with 
a  frankness  equal  to  your  own. ' '  His  dissidence  is  expressed 
with  what  the  French  call  malice,  a  sort  of  roguishness 
without  malignity :  "If,  to  an  extent  more,  perhaps,  than  is 
permissible,  you  allow  poetry  to  enter  into  history,  have 
we  any  right  to  reproach  you  on  this  account?  Are  we 
not  all  to  a  certain  extent  your  accomplices?  .  .  .  Your 
method.  Sir,  may  be  defended  on  plausible  grounds;  it  is 
even  better  defended  by  your  rare  talent.  "^^ 

One  bit  of  this  friendly  malice  led  Renan  to  reply.  * '  One 
wonders,"  said  Mezieres,  "in  what  unpublished  memoirs,  in 
what  documents  known  only  to  yourself,  you  discovered  so 
many  details  hitherto  unknown.  .  .  .  Before  you,  much 
had  been  written  about  Saint  Paul;  but  nobody  had  been 
admitted  to  his  intimacy  to  such  a  degree  as  yourself.    An 

than   the  Averroists  of   Padua."      (P.   323.)      Kenan's   remarks   are 
often  exaggerated,  but  they  are  never  wholly  gratuitous. 

"  Both  addresses  are  to  be  found  in  Academie  Fran^aise,  recev.il  de 
discours,  1870-1879.  The  Debats  published  Kenan's  piece  April  4  and 
Mezieres'  reply  the  next  day,  as  was  their  custom  at  this  time.  For 
Kenan's  discourse,  see  Discours  et  conferences. 

319 


ERNEST  RENAN 

eminent  critic  (Scherer)  presumes  that  you  had  seen  him; 
and  it  must  be  so,  since  you  are  the  first  to  represent  him 
as  an  ugly  little  Jew  and  to  describe  him  from  head  to 
foot." 

Not  wishing  to  appear  to  have  drawn  a  caricature  of 
the  great  apostle,  Renan,  in  the  Dehats  for  April  9,  presents 
the  evidence  that  his  portrait  is  not  at  all  imaginative,  but  is 
based  on  very  ancient  and,  as  it  seems  to  him,  reliable  tra- 
dition, which  accords  with  what  Paul  actually  said  of  him- 
self. He  refuses  to  abandon  the  probable  and  the  possible 
in  history,  so  long  as  they  are  indicated  by  phrases  of  doubt. 
''What  I  never  do  is  to  add  a  material  circumstance  to  the 
texts,  a  detail  to  the  portrayal  of  manners,  a  stroke  to  the 
landscape.  The  whole  I  grasp  in  my  own  way;  I  do  not 
introduce  into  it  a  single  element  that  has  not  been  fur- 
nished me. ' '  ''^ 

Another  outcome  of  the  reception  address  was  irritation 
in  Germany.  In  the  course  of  his  praise  of  the  Academy 
for  bringing  scholarship  and  literature  into  the  currents  of 
social  life  and  great  affairs,  Renan  had  said:  "You  are 
little  troubled  at  the  pompous  announcement  of  the  advent 
of  what  is  called  another  culture,  that  can  get  along  with- 
out talent.  ...  A  science  pedantic  in  its  solitude,  a  litera- 
ture without  joy,  a  churlish  polity,  an  upper  class  without 
brilliance,  a  nobility  without  wit,  gentlemen  without  polish, 
great  captains  without  sonorous  phrases,  these  will  not,  I 
believe,  very  soon  dethrone  the  remembrance  of  that  French 
society  of  old,  so  brilliant,  so  polite,  so  eager  to  please." 

The  remark  excited  a  somewhat  presumptuous  professor 
from  beyond  the  Rhine,  Gustav  Soiling,  who  published  a 
little  pamphlet,  M.  Renan  and  Germany,  a  piece  of  angry, 

"Mezi^res'  reply,  sent  from  Nancy,  appeared  April  12;  to  this 
Eenan  added  a  statement  that  certain  features  in  which  Mezi^res  had 
"recognized  hi$  right  of  property"  were  taken  textually  from  Nice- 
phorus. 

m 


THE  ACADEMY 

insulting  and  arrogant  Teutonism/^  the  tone  of  which  is 
fairly  represented  by  the  following:  "To  conquer  you  re- 
quired not  only  much  courage,  but  much  intelligence.  This 
remark  will  perhaps  show  you,  Sir,  that  we  do  not  lack 
politeness,  even  toward  the  eternal  enemy  of  our  coun- 
try. ' '  To  this  accusation  that  he  was  an  enemy  of  Germany, 
Renan  answered  with  perfect  forbearance  in  a  "Letter  to 
a  German  Friend, ' '  ^^  that  not  all  those  reproached  by  him 
were  Germans.  The  collaboration  of  France  and  Germany, 
the  oldest  illusion  of  his  youth,  had  become  anew  the  con- 
viction of  his  maturity,  but  the  military  leaders  of  Berlin 
had  entered  upon  an  ungenerous  course  of  repression  and 
violence,  hard,  arid  and  arbitrary.  "Harsh  and  rigid,  re- 
garding the  state  as  a  chain,  and  not  as  something  beneficent, 
they  think  they  understand  the  German  character,  but  they 
do  not  understand  human  nature."  They  have  suppressed 
the  genius  of  the  nation.  "Where  is  your  continuation  of 
Goethe,  Schiller,  and  Heine?  .  .  .  You  were  strong,  and 
you  have  not  established  liberty.  ...  To  win  men,  you 
must  please  them;  to  please  them,  you  must  be  amiable. 
Your  Prussian  statesmen  have  every  gift  but  that.  .  .  .  The 
genius  of  Germany  is  great  and  powerful;  it  remains  one 
of  the  principal  organs  of  the  human  mind;  but  you  have 
put  it  in  a  vice  that  tortures  it.  You  are  led  astray  by  a 
dry  and  cold  school,  that  seeks  to  suppress  rather  than 
to  develop.  We  are  sure  that  you  will  find  yourselves  again, 
and  that  some  day  we  shall  renew  our  collaboration  in  the 
search  for  all  that  can  give  grace,  gayety,  and  happiness 
to  life.  "^» 


"Monsieur  Eenan  et  V Allemagne,  lettre  ouverte  d'un  allemand. 
Wiesbade,  1879,  signed  G.  Soiling. 

^Behais,   April    16. 

'•Bemarkable  as  showing  how  Gennan  thinkers  blinded  themselves 
to  their  perils  is  an  article  on  this  controversy,  "Ernst  Renan  und 
die  deutsche  Cultur, "  by  Heinrich  Homburger,  which  appeared  in  the 
'BvmdschaV'  for  June,   1879,     The  author  readily   concedes  the  truth 

321 


ERNEST  RENAN 

of  Eenan's  restrictiong,  but  denies  that  they  are  matter  of  reproach. 
The  ideal  Germany  found  by  the  Frenchman  in  the  great  writers  had 
never  been  the  real  Germany,  for  among  the  Germans  there  always 
had  been,  and  there  still  continued,  a  cleavage  between  life  and  litera- 
ture, such  as  was  not  to  be  found  in  England  and  France.  A  Machiavel- 
lian state  policy,  realism,  genius  turned  wholly  to  practical  affairs, 
constituted  a  natural  reaction  from  previous  conditions.  The  Ger- 
mans had  grown  more  narrow-minded,  but  this  was  necessary  to  their 
progress.  "We  seek  no  longer  to  be  a  race  of  poets  and  thinkers,  but 
of  soldiers  and  business-men."  (P.  475. J  This  tendency  is,  indeed, 
universal,  though  more  complete  and  thorough  in  Germany  than  else- 
where. It  is  perfectly  proper  that  all  Germans  should  look  to  the 
State  for  everything,  and  Prussianism  is  welcomed  as  a  necessary 
stage  toward  something  better  in  the  future. 


CHAPTER  X 

LITEBABY  POTENTATE ;  ACHIEVEMENT  OP  EVERY  AMBITION  ;  LAST  YEARS 

(1879-1892) 

During  his  last  years  Kenan's  occupations  were  very  numerous 
and  he  went  much  into  society.  His  rheumatism  grew  upon  him, 
so  that  he  was  seldom  without  pain.  For  a  cure  he  took  baths  at 
Ischia  (1879)  and  Plombieres  (1880),  employing  his  leisure  in 
writing  the  Philosophic  Dramas  and  the  Recollections.  He  finished 
bis  Origins  with  The  Christian  Church  (1879),  Marcus  Aurelius 
(1881)  and  the  Index  (1883).  Kenan  spoke  often  in  public,  at 
academic  and  other  functions  and  before  learned  societies.  At 
the  Academy,  he  received  Pasteur  and  Cherbuliez  (1882),  de  Les- 
seps  (18S5),  and  Jules  Claretie  (1889),  and  distributed  the  Prizes 
of  Virtue  (1881).  His  most  important  lectures  were  the  Hibbert 
Lectures  in  London  (1880),  though  "What  is  a  Nation?"  deliv- 
ered at  the  Sorbonne  (1882),  seems  to  have  been  his  own  favorite. 
In  1881  and  1882  he  spent  the  summer  near  Taine  at  Tallorres 
on  Lake  Annecy  and  1883  was  spent  at  Sevres.  Elected  Admin- 
istrator of  the  College  de  France  (1883),  he  moved  into  the  oflBeial 
apartment  in  the  college  buildings.  His  translation  of  Ecclesiastes 
appeared  in  1882  and  his  Recollections  in  1883.  The  first  fascicle 
of  the  first  volume  of  the  Corpus  was  published  in  1881,  and  the 
first  fascicle  of  the  second  volume  in  1891.  In  1880  he  began 
presiding  at  the  Celtic  Dinners  in  Paris,  continuing  this  function 
till  the  spring  before  his  death.  Out  of  these  dinners  g^ew  the 
Fetes  in  Brittany,  tl.e  first  of  which,  at  Treguier  in  1884,  led  him 
to  procure  his  summer  home  at  Kosmapamon,  where  he  passed 
his  summers  from  1885  on.  In  1884  he  was  elected  president  of 
the  Soeiete  Asiatique,  to  which  he  was  very  devoted.  In  this 
year  he  brought  out  New  Studies  in  Religious  History.  He  also 
wrote  a  few  reviews  for  the  Debats,  though  most  of  his  work  of 
this  nature  was  done  for  the  Journal  des  Savants.  Three  feuil- 
letons  appeared  in  the  Debats  for  1886  and  1887,  one  of  them 
being  a  dialogue  in  honor  of  Victor  Hugo,  spoken  at  the  Theatre 

323 


ERNEST  RENAN 

Frangais.  In  1887  came  Speeches  and  Lectures  and  Volume  I  of 
the  History  of  the  People  of  Israel,  on  which  he  had  been  working 
for  six  years.  His  collected  Philosophic  Dramas  and  Volume  II 
of  the  History  appeared  the  next  year.  As  a  diversion  he  had 
written  an  "Examination  of  Philosophic  Conscience,"  which  he 
published  in  the  Revue  des  deux  Mondes  for  August  15,  1889.  In 
1890  appeared  Volume  III  of  the  History  and  The  Future  of 
Science  (1848-1849).  The  quarrel  with  Goncourt  over  the  in- 
discretions of  the  Journal  belongs  to  this  year.  Renan's  health  was 
now  broken.  He  went  south  in  November,  1891,  but  with  meager 
results.  Scattered  Leaves  appeared  early  in  1892.  Having  finished 
the  last  proofs  for  the  "Jewish  Rabbis"  in  the  Histoire  litteraire 
de  la  France,  Volume  XXXI,  Renan  went  to  Rosmapamon,  but 
was  unable  to  walk  and  almost  unable  to  work.  On  September 
17th  he  was  brought  back  to  Paris  in  a  condition  of  utter  exhaustion 
and  he  died  October  2,  1892.  The  state  gave  him  a  public  funeral. 
The  last  two  volumes  of  his  History  and  a  collection  of  articles 
from  the  Histoire  litteraire  were  published  after  his  death.  Still 
later  came  some  of  his  correspondence,  his  "Youthful  Notebooks," 
ScBur  Henriette,  some  sketches,  and  a  further  collection  of  essays. 
Renan's  library  was  purchased  by  Mme.  Calmann  L^vy  and  pre- 
sented to  the  Bibliotheque  Nationale. 


"Your  intellectual  group  is  reached,"  said  Renan  to  his 
fellow  academicians,  "at  the  age  of  the  Ecclesiast,  a  charm- 
ing age  most  fitted  for  serene  gayety,  when  on  begins  to 
see  after  a  laborious  youth,  that  all  is  vanity,  but  also  that 
a  multitude  of  vain  things  are  worthy  of  prolonged  tasting 
with  enjoyment."  This  note  is  so  prominent  in  Renan's 
last  years  that  it  has  colored  the  general  estimate  of  his 
whole  career.  "  In  a  man  raised  to  the  dignity  of  a  symbol, ' ' 
he  had  once  written,  "we  must  always  distinguish  between 
his  personal  life  and  his  life  beyond  the  grave,  between  what 
he  wa^  in  reality  and  what  opinion  has  made  of  him."^ 
What  opinion  made  of  Renan,  the  Renan  legend,  was  the 

^Averroes,  p.  432. 

324 


THE  LITERARY  POTENTATE 

creation  of  a  group  of  young  reviewers,  Paul  Bourget  and 
Jules  Lemaitre  especially,  who  presented  the  genial,  ironical, 
instable  skeptic  without  solid  principles,  the  intellectual  epi- 
curean tasting  delicate  ideas  and  intoxicating  himself  with 
the  flavor  of  endless  contradictions,  the  dilettante  reducing 
the  world  to  a  mere  spectacle  for  his  enjoyment,  the  in- 
scrutable artist  gayly  playing  with  insubstantial  fantasies 
which  he  had  conjured  out  of  the  void.  It  is  needless  to 
say  that  this  view,  based  on  his  recreations  and  not  on  his 
solid  daily  task,  was  by  no  means  shared  by  the  toilers, 
like  James  Darmesteter  and  Philippe  Berger,  who  worked 
with  him  and  after  him  in  oriental  scholarship.  The  en- 
thusiastic Ritter  applies  to  Renan  some  words  originally 
written  of  another:  "Noble  and  venerable,  powerful  and 
sweet,  working  without  intermission,  calm  in  the  pursuit 
of  truth,  serious  and  firm,  but  with  love  in  his  heart  and 
benevolence  on  his  lips, ' '  ^ 

There  was  no  intermittence  in  his  labors  of  erudition. 
His  special  portion  of  The  Corpus,  the  chapter  on  Phoeni- 
cian inscriptions,  was  ready  for  printing  in  1880,^  but  the 
first  fascicle  did  not  appear  till  a  year  later.*  Renan  had 
not  only  taken  the  initiative,  but  he  was,  throughout,  the 
soul  of  this  work.  What  many  had  thought  an  undertaking 
so  vast  that  it  would  never  come  to  publication,  he  carried 
through  successfully  to  its  achievement.    At  the  same  time 

'Letter  of  August  29,  1881.  The  Bourget-Lemaltre  view  was  not 
universal  even  among  the  literary  critics.  Gaston  Deschamps,  a  philolo- 
gist as  well  as  one  of  the  most  copious  writers  for  the  Debats,  pro- 
tested openly  against  it  as  early  as  1889  (see  La  Vie  et  les  livres, 
voL  ii),  and  Paul  Deschanel,  in  reviewing  Sov/venirs  (DSbats,  Sep- 
tember 18  and  28,  1883),  shows  how  arbitrary  is  Bourget 's  use  of 
the  word  "  dilettantisme. "  These  articles  of  Deschanel  manifest  the 
best  understanding  of  Kenan  since  Sainte-Beuve.  Appearing  before 
L'Avenir  de  la  Science  and  the  correspondence,  they  display  a  surpris- 
ing quality  of  divination. 

'  Renan 's   Annual    Report   as  Secretary   of   the   Soci6t6   Asiatique. 

*  Reviewed  by  Philippe  Berger  in  the  DSbats,  September  16,  1881; 
the  second  fascicle  appeared  July  27,  1883. 

325 


ERNEST  RENAN 

he  continued  his  contributions  to  the  Histoire  littet^ire  de 
la  France,  his  studies  on  ''Christine  de  Stommeln"  and 
"Clement  V"  (vol.  xxviii,  1881)  appearing  also  as  essays 
in  the  Revue  des  deux  Mondes  (March  1  and  May  15,  1880). 
Up  to  1882  he  continued  his  annual  reports  as  secretary  of 
the  Societe  Asiatique,  being  then  relieved  by  Darmesteter, 
after  having  performed  this  duty  for  fifteen  years.  It  had 
at  length  grown  to  be  an  irksome  task — for  eight  or  ten 
months  the  books  and  pamphlets  piled  upon  his  table,  while 
he  kept  wishing  that  he  would  not  be  obliged  to  go  through 
them.  Then,  when  in  May  he  attacks  the  heap,  he  finds  such 
pleasure  in  looking  over  the  great  variety  of  new  and  origi- 
nal investigations  that  he  is  full  of  thanks  for  a  function 
so  fruitful  and  so  agreeable.'  It  is  a  pleasing  spectacle  to 
see  one  of  the  most  famous  men  of  the  world  not  only  con- 
tented but  happy  to  act  as  secretary  to  this  little  group  of 
oriental  scholars.  But  he  was  soon  to  become  their  leader. 
At  the  meeting  of  the  Societe  Asiatique  of  November  14, 
1884,  announcement  was  made  of  the  death  of  Adolph  Reg- 
nier,  and  Kenan  was  elected  by  acclamation  to  succeed  him 
as  president,  an  honor  highly  appreciated,  for  this  society 
was  one  of  his  first  loves  and  it  continued  dear  to  him  to 
the  very  end." 

Meanwhile,  his  life  work  was  completed  as  far  as  it  had 
been  planned.  The  Christian  Church  appearing  October  21, 
1879,  and  Marcus  Aurelius  November  11,  1881.''  Prepared 
from  the  days  of  his  youth,  the  actual  performance  of  the 

"  Eeport  of  June  29,  1881. 

•  In  order  to  economize  his  time  Renan  had  the  hour  of  meeting 
changed  from  8  to  4:30  p.  M.  so  that,  after  finishing  at  the  weekly 
meeting  of  the  Academic  des  Inscriptions,  he  could  attend  this  monthly 
meeting  later  on  the  same  afternoon.  He  was  very  regular  in  his 
attendance  here,  as  well  as  at  both  Academies,  absence  being  usually 
an  indication  of  ill-health  or  of  remoteness  from  Paris. 

'See  Bgbats,  October  20,  1879,  and  November  10,  1881,  in  both 
cases  a  chapter  being  published  in  the  advance  notice.  In  the  Bevue 
des  deux  Mondes,  Chapters  xiii-rv  of  Marcus  Aurelms  had  been  pub* 
liflhed  February  15,  and  Chapters  xxviii-xxx  November  1,  1881. 

326 


THE  LITERARY  POTENTATE 

task  had  occupied  twenty  years  of  Renan's  life,  an  effort 
"sustained  without  iatigne."^  He  had  prolonged  his  his- 
tory to  include  Marcus  Aurelius  for  two  characteristic  rea- 
sons; one  of  scholarship,  because  his  studies  had  led  him 
to  transfer  the  epoch  of  Montanism  from  the  reign  of  An- 
toninus to  that  of  his  successor ;  and  one  of  art,  the  contrast 
between  the  futility  of  the  efforts  of  the  philosophic  re- 
formers and  the  fruitfulness  of  the  tide  of  Christianity. 

Having  been  allowed,  "thanks  to  infinite  goodness,"  to 
finish  this  task,  he  promised  to  consecrate  what  remained 
to  him  of  strength  and  activity  to  writing  the  History  of 
the  People  of  Israel,  a  necessary  introduction  to  the  Origins; 
and  as  a  matter  of  fact,  he  set  to  work  immediately  on  his 
new  book.  Meantime,  an  index,  which  he  had  expected  to 
bring  out  simultaneously  with  his  final  volume,  proved  a 
greater  labor  than  he  had  anticipated.  With  the  aid  of 
his  daughter,  Noemi,  he  struggled  valiantly  for  two  years 
with  this  interminable,  colossal  and  almost  crushing  xmder- 
taking." 

As  early  as  1873,  Ritter  had  begged  Renan  to  do  for 
Ecclesiastes  what  he  had  previously  done  for  Joh  and  the 
SoTig  of  Songs,^°  and  Renan,  after  making  the  book  the 
subject  of  his  course  at  the  College  de  France  for  the  year 
1875,  promises  the  translation.  * '  The  author  is  a  true  sage, ' ' 
he  writes,  "and  on  a  multitude  of  points  we  cannot  speak 
better  than  he. "  ^^  In  the  summer  of  1881,  Ritter  saw 
proofs  of  the  translation  at  Talloires,  where  Renan  was 
finishing  the  work,  much  to  his  own  entertainment.  It  was 
done  by  September  2nd,  the  introductory  study  appeared 

•  See  the  admirable  review  by  Boissier  in  the  Bevue  des  deux  Mondes, 
March  1,  1882. 

•To  Berthelot,  August  12  and  September  2,  1881;  also  letter  of 
Eitter  October  5,  1881,  It  was  not  until  June,  1883,  that  the  index 
at  length  appeared. 

"Letter  of  June  22. 

»  To  Eitter,  June  9,  1875. 

327 


ERNEST  RENAN 

in  the  B&vue  des  deux  Mondes  February  15,  1882,  and  the 
volume  itself  was  published  a  few  days  later. 

Like  his  other  translations,  in  fact  even  more  than  his 
other  translations,  since  he  here  gives  a  complete  summary 
of  Jewish  beliefs  and  their  connection  with  revolutionary 
Utopias,  this  was  a  sort  of  preliminary  study  for  his  his- 
tory, and  indeed  several  passages  from  the  introduction, 
notably  one  about  Heine  as  a  descendant  of  Koheleth,^^  were 
transferred  bodily  to  the  later  work.  The  text,  too,  is  care- 
fully and  extensively  corrected,  and  personal  experience  is 
brought  to  bear  upon  the  explanations.  It  is  a  mistake, 
however,  to  consider  Renan's  remarks  on  Ecclesiastes,  as 
some  did,^^  a  chapter  of  autobiography.  He  had,  to  be  sure, 
much  sympathy  with  this  philosophy,  but  it  was  not  alto- 
gether his  own.  Instead  of  a  resigned  fatalism,  he  continued 
to  cherish  his  faith  in  science.  "In  the  midst  of  the  abso- 
lute fluidity  of  things,  let  us  maintain  the  eternal."  (P.  88.) 
Whatever  we  may  think  or  say,  the  laws  of  the  universe 
will  persist.  * '  Ring  out,  bells !  The  more  you  ring,  the  more 
freely  shall  I  allow  myself  to  say  that  your  chiming  signifies 
nothing  very  distinct.  If  I  feared  to  silence  you,  then  I 
should  indeed  become  timid  and  discrete."  (P.  89.)  There 
is  no  doubt,  however,  that  the  stamp  of  approval  placed 
upon  "Vanity  of  Vanities"  contributed  to  the  formation 
of  the  Renan  legend. 

II 

It  is  certain  that  Renan  enjoyed  his  literary  preeminence ; 
he  had  also  the  satisfaction  of  achieving  every  ambition 
of  his  life.  In  1863  he  had  written  Berthelot  that  he  should 
like  to  be  "  a  tranquil  professor  with  a  dozen  pupils,  writing 

"Objection  to  this  portrait  as  a  type  of  the  contemporary  Jew  waB 
made  in  the  Debats,  April  26,  by  Henry  Aron,  who  maintained  that 
the  Hebrew  idealists  are  not  all  dead. 

"See  review  in  Debats,  November  23,  1882,  by  Edgar  Zevort. 

328  ' 


ACHIEVEMENT  OF  EVERY  AMBITION 

his  books  at  his  leisure  and  having  for  his  supreme  aim 
to  become  Administrator  of  the  College  de  France. "  ^*  In 
this  desire,  too,  he  was  gratified.  On  May  24,  1883,  Labou- 
laye  died  and  in  his  place  Kenan's  colleagues  on  the  faculty 
elected  him  their  head.^'*  He  moved  into  the  apartment 
provided  for  the  Administrator  two  flights  up  in  the  college 
buildings  and  remained  there  until  his  death. 

In  the  same  year  was  published  in  book  form  his  Recol- 
lections of  Childhood  and  Youth,^^  the  most  fascinating  of 
all  his  writings.  Begun  with  two  rather  fragmentary  con- 
tributions to  the  Revue  des  deux  Mandes,"  these  remin- 
iscences were  continued  as  a  connected  narrative  of  his 
early  education.  The  third  installment  was  part  of  his  sum- 
mer recreation  of  1879,  contributed  to  the  Revue  des  deux 
Mondes,  November  1,  1880.  In  due  course  the  fourth,  fifth 
and  sixth  chapters  appeared  in  the  same  periodical.^*  There 
could  be  nothing  more  frank,  nothing  more  mellow  and 
genial  than  this  collection  of  essays.  The  old  man — ^we 
must  remember  that,  as  R^nan  himself  regrets,  he  was  ten 
years  older  than  dates  would  indicate — looks  back  through 
the  haze  of  intervening  time  upon  youthful  experiences  from 
which  the  sharp  angles  have  disappeared  and  finds  his  past 
not  only  interesting,  but  attractive.  The  story  is  to  be  taken 
cum  grano  salis,  he  warns  us ;  and  this  grain  of  salt,  which 
all  who  heard  him  talk,  found  in  his  incomparable  smile, 
the  reader  will  here  discover  for  himself  in  the  very  mode 
of  the  telling.  Those  who  tear  up  violets  in  hopes  of  find- 
ing potatoes  or  turnips  at  the  roots  have  little  patience  with 
this  book.  It  is  egotistical,  illogical  in  its  philosophy,  con- 
tradictory in  its  moral  precepts;  so  be  it.    Those  who  ap- 

"  September  24,   1863. 
*•  He  was  twice  reelected. 

"April,  1883;  reviewed  by  Paul  Deschanel  in  th©  DSbaU,  Sep- 
tember 18  and  28. 

"Parts  I  and  II,  eee  p.  308. 

» December  15,  1881,  and  Noyember  1  and  15,  1882. 

329 


ERNEST  RENAN 

predate  the  work  will  smile  indulgently,  find  delight  in 
what  is  offered,  and  feel  that  there  has  actually  been  trans- 
mitted to  them  the  author's  "theory  of  the  universe."  There 
is,  indeed,  abundance  of  seriousness  here  for  those  who  are 
willing  to  perceive  it,  but  the  touch  is  light.  The  final 
words,  often  accepted  as  Renan's  whole  attitude  toward 
life,  are  by  no  means  to  be  so  regarded.  They  constitute 
only  the  view  from  one  window,  and  that  a  very  agreeable 
outlook.  ''The  existence  given  me  without  my  asking  has 
been  for  me  a  benefit.  If  it  were  offered  anew,  I  should 
accept  with  gratitude.  The  epoch  in  which  I  have  lived  has 
probably  not  been  the  greatest,  but  it  will  doubtless  be 
counted  the  most  entertaining  of  epochs.  Unless  my  last 
years  hold  in  reserve  for  me  very  cruel  sufferings,  I  shall 
have  reason,  in  saying  farewell  to  life,  only  to  give  thanks  to 
the  cause  of  all  good  for  the  charming  promenade  I  have 
been  permitted  to  take  in  the  midst  of  reality." 

Cruel  sufferings  did  accompany  Renan's  last  years,  and 
he  had  experienced  pain  enough  even  before  these  words 
were  written.  It  never,  however,  subdued  his  good  humor. 
In  June,  1879,  Philippe  Berger  read  to  the  Societe  Asiatique 
those  parts  of  the  secretary's  report  that  could  be  finished 
before  illness  interrupted.  The  summer  trip  was  to  Tschia 
for  the  cure,  and  later  to  Sorrento  and  home  by  way  of 
Venice.  In  1880,  having  "suffered  almost  all  winter  with 
rheumatism,  which  has  attacked  his  left  arm, "  ^^  he  went 
to  Plombieres  for  the  baths,  and  then  again  to  Switzerland 
and  Venice,  where  Mary  Robinson  first  met  him.  But  not- 
withstanding all  these  trips,  he  was  never  idle.  From 
Plombieres  he  writes  to  ask  Berthelot  about  alembics  as 
decoration  for  his  Ecm  de  jouvence,  which  he  had  begun 
the  year  before  at  Isehia.     Simultaneously,   during  these 

"Taine,  March  14,  1880.  Eenan  himself  writes  Berthelot  from 
London,  April  5,  of  "my  eternal  enemy  in  the  right  knee,"  which 
was  cured  this  time  by  a  fine  performance  of  The  Merchant  of  Venice, 

330 


ACHIEVEMENT  OF  EVERY  AMBITION 

vacations,  the  Recollections  are  getting  written,  Ecclesiastes 
translated,  the  Index  carefully  constructed.  The  eighteenth 
centenary  of  Pompeii  elicits  a  letter  to  the  Dehats,^'^  which 
he  calls  "twaddle  about  the  fete  at  Pompeii,""  but  which 
is  in  reality  a  deft  mingling  of  seriousness  and  humor  in 
a  delightful  personal  chat. 

Mary  Robinson's  impression  is  one  of  the  most  vivid  of 
those  to  be  found  in  her  entertaining  book  :^^ 

It  was  at  this  moment  that  I  made  the  acquaintance  of  M.  and 
Madame  Renan  and  their  children.  Well  do  I  remember  the  day, 
the  year,  the  season !  It  was  in  September,  1880.  I  was  traveling 
in  Italy  with  my  parents.  At  Venice  we  fell  in  with  a  friend 
of  my  father's — Signor  Castellani,  the  archaeologist.  He  invited 
us  to  spend  a  day  at  Torcello  with  the  Kenans,  Sir  Henry  Layard, 
and  his  wife.  I  was  a  young  girl  then,  more  familiar  with  the 
Nineveh  Courts  of  the  British  Museum  (for  which  I  worshiped 
Sir  Henry  Layard)  and  with  Signor  Castellani's  exquisite  Bronze 
Mask  in  the  same  collection,  than  with  any  writing  of  M.  Kenan's. 
In  fact,  save  for  a  lecture  on  Marcus  Aurelius,  which  I  had 
heard  him  deliver  a  few  months  before,  I  knew  him  only  by 
repute,  as  a  heretic  (that  was  attractive),  and  a  philologist  (which 
seemed  less  interesting).  But  after  the  first  half-hour  in  his 
company  I  saw  that  here,  here  was  the  Man  of  Genius !  I  thought 
him  like  the  enchanter  Merlin — not  Bume-Jones'  graceful  wizard, 
but  some  rough-hewn,  gnome-like,  Saint-Magician  of  Armor. 
What  a  leonine  head,  with  its  silvery  mane  of  soft,  gray  hair, 
surmounted  that  massive  girth !  What  an  elfin,  delicate  light  shone 
in  the  clear  eyes,  and  lurked  in  the  sinuous  lines  of  the  smile! 
How  lucid,  how  natural,  how  benign  the  intelligence  which  mildly 
radiated  from  him!  M.  Kenan  was  at  his  best  on  that  occasion. 
We  all  felt  ourselves  in  the  glad  society  of  an  Immortal.  ...  I 
still  see  the  little  Italian  gimboat  cutting  through  the  bright 
lagoon  towards  the  desolate  shores  of  Torcello,  fringed  with 
scarlet-dotted  pomegranate  hedges  and  wastes  of  lilac-tipped  sea- 

*  Dated  Sorrento,  September  26,  1879 ;  published  October  14,  FeuUles 
detachees. 

"To  Berthelot,  September  28. 

**  The  Life  of  Ernest  Senan,  by  Madame  James  Darmesteter  (A. 
Mary  F.  Robinson),  pp.  246-248. 

331 


ERNEST  RENAN 

lavender!  How  brilliant  the  mother-island  looked  in  her  abandon- 
ment. The  brown  old  church  inspired  M.  Renan.  At  that  moment, 
with  a  heart  divided  between  the  glory  of  Hellas  and  the  spiritual 
grace  of  Christianity,  few  things,  indeed,  could  have  touched  him 
nearer  than  that  ancient  Mosaic,  where  the  Apocalyptic  Angels 
pour  the  Wrath  of  God  from  vials  shaped  like  the  purest  classic 
cornucopiae.  He  stood  long  in  front  of  it.  He  discoursed  to 
the  eminent  archaeologists  who  accompanied  him;  we  all  listened, 
we  girls  no  less  earnestly  than  they,  if  with  less  understanding. 
At  first  I  had  thought  him  ugly,  I  confess.  But,  as  he  spoke,  he 
grew  almost  handsome.  The  great  head,  held  on  one  side,  half  in 
criticism,  half  in  propitiation,  was  so  puissant  in  its  mass;  the 
blue  eyes  beamed  with  wit  and  playful  kindness.  How  he  savored, 
and  made  us  savor,  that  image  of  the  anger  of  the  Eternal  ele- 
gantly treasured  in  the  horns  of  plenty.  How  he  revived  for  us 
the  soul  of  the  mother-church  of  Venice — the  handful  of  poor 
refugees;  primitive  people,  ship-wrecked,  as  it  were,  upon  that 
lonely  island;  yet,  in  their  way,  refined  thinkers,  with  a  com- 
mand of  art  and  image,  as  became  the  heirs  of  more  than  one 
immeasurable  ideal. 

In  1881  the  Kenans  spent  the  summer  at  Talloires,  on  Lake 
Amnecy,  in  an  old  ruined  abbey  near  Taine  and  other  friends, 
going  for  October,  by  way  of  Venice  to  Rome.  On  this 
visit  he  for  the  first  time  saw  Lake  Nemi,  the  inspiration 
of  his  third  drama.  He  was  meditating  another  trip  to 
the  Orient  to  gather  inspiration  for  his  History  of  Israel, 
but  health  prevented,  and  the  next  year  he  was  again  at 
Talloires  in  a  rustic  house  immediately  adjoining  the  home 
of  the  Taines,  though  he  had  not  yet  entirely  relinquished 
all  idea  of  his  trip  to  the  Holy  Land.^^  In  1883  Noemi 
was  married  to  Jean  Psichari,  a  young  Greek  scholar,  who 
later  became  one  of  the  most  distinguished  of  French  philolo- 
gists, and  a  pioneer  in  Neo-Greek  literature.  This  year 
Renan  apparently  spent  the  summer  months  wholly  at 
Sevres.^* 

"  For  these  summers  see  correspondence  of  Eitter  and  of  Eenan 
and  Berthelot. 

•*He  made  an  address  in  Paris,  August  8,  and  one  in  the  Montpar- 

332 


BRITTANY 


III 


It  was  the  summer  of  1884  that  brought  about  his  re- 
visits to  Brittany,  and  consummated  the  return  to  early 
days  so  marked  in  his  later  writings.  Some  four  years 
earlier,  Narcisse  Quellien,  a  Breton  journalist,  educated  at 
the  Seminary  of  Treguier,  had  inveigled  Renan  to  the 
"Diners  Celtiques,"  founded  by  him  and  held  on  the  sec- 
ond Saturday  of  each  month  at  a  cafe  near  the  Montpamasse 
Railway  Station.  These  dinners,  of  which  Renan  attended 
two  or  three  each  season,  prolonged  his  life,  he  says,  ten 
years.^®  Quellien  was  a  serviceable  person,  who  paid  his 
idol  all  sorts  of  daily  attentions,  ran  errands,  looked  after 
the  luggage,  and  made  arrangements  with  cabmen  and  inn- 
keepers.^^ For  the  summer  of  1884,  he  arranged  a  great 
festival  at  Treguier,  a  dinner  (August  2)  under  a  tent  in 
the  garden  of  the  Lion  d'Or,  which  was  attended  by  two 
hundred  and  fifty  guests.  Here  Renan  as  guest  of  honor 
made  one  of  his  characteristic  speeches,  the  whole  affair 
being  reported  at  length  in  the  Debats  for  August  4.  After 
giving  Renan 's  address  in  full,  the  writer  adds:  "What 
we  cannot  reproduce  is  the  familiar  and  touching  tone  in 
which  these  words  were  pronounced,  and  the  joyous  and 
slightly  ironical  smile  with  which  they  were,  so  to  speak, 
seasoned.  M.  Renan  regrets  in  his  Becollections  not  being 
able  sometimes  to  put  in  the  margin  of  his  book :  cum  grano 
salis.  When  he  speaks,  it  is  his  smile  that  replaces  the  mar- 
ginal comment." 

After  the  great  celebration,  Renan  was  entertained  by 

nassG  cemetery  August  23,  and  he  attended  a  meeting  of  the  Acadfimie 
des  Inscriptions  September  7.  See  Bebats.  His  paradise  at  Ischia, 
which  had  been  visited  by  au  earthquake,  March  4,  1881,  was  totally 
destroyed  by  a  second  visitation,  July  28,  1883,  a  calamity  in  which 
over   4,000    people   lost   their   lives. 

*  Feuilles  detachees,  p.  74. 

»Een6  d'Ys,  p.  222. 

333 


ERNEST  RENAN 

his  tenant,  Le  Bigot,  who  sacrificed  a  family  pet  in  order 
to  regale  him.  *'You  can  see  how  we  love  you,"  said  Mme. 
Le  Bigot.  "We  have  had  this  hen  six  years,  and  we  have 
killed  it  in  your  honor."  In  spite  of  his  protestations  that 
he  was  so  sorry  for  the  poor  beast  he  had  not  the  courage 
to  eat  it,  the  guest  was  obliged  to  take  two  helpings.^^  We 
can  appreciate  Renan's  repugnance  when  we  remember  a 
scene  at  one  of  the  Magny  dinners  during  the  siege,  re- 
corded by  Goncourt.  The  whole  company  was  surprised  to 
see  a  roast  breast  of  lamb  appear  on  the  table.  When  it  was 
discovered  to  be  dog,  and  somebody  began  praising  the 
flavor  of  stewed  rat,  Renan  grew  pale,  threw  his  payment  on 
the  plate  and  bolted.^^ 

The  result  of  this  visit  to  Brittany  was  that  Renan  found 
at  Louannec,  Perros-Guirec,  a  typical  three-story  country 
house  called  Rosmapamon  among  woods  close  by  and  within 
sight  of  the  sea,  of  which  he  took  a  six-year  lease  in  De- 
cember. Here,  surrounded  by  his  family  and  visited  by 
many  friends,  he  passed  his  summers  for  the  rest  of  his  life. 
* '  The  garden  and  the  neighboring  woods  are  charming, ' '  he 
writes  Berthelot  (July  6,  1885).  "The  house  is  small,  parva 
sed  apta  rmJii;  we  shall  find  means  of  accommodating  our 
friends  without  too  much  discomfort. ' '  One  of  the  bedrooms 
was  always  called  Berthelot 's  room,  though  other  favored 
guests  were  allowed  to  occupy  it.  When  visitors  were  too 
numerous  for  the  house,  they  were  lodged  in  a  neighboring 
inn.  At  last  Renan  had  a  home,  and  in  Paris  too  he  ob- 
tained a  permanent  abode. 

With  the  years  1883-1884,  indeed,  we  enter  the  last  phase 
of  Renan's  career.  Academician,  Administrator,  President 
of  the  Societe  Asiatique,  he  had  completed  his  Origins,  even 
to  the  index,  completed  his  Recollections,  begun  his  dramas, 
and  put  before  the  learned  world  a  goodly  specimen  of  his 

"Ibid.,  pp.  63,  64. 

*  Journal,  voL  iv,  206,  January  24,  1871. 

334 


PUBLIC  ADDRESSES 

Corpus.  There  were  henceforth  no  new  undertakings;  he 
simply  carried  forward  what  had  been  begnn  and  by  rare 
good  fortune  completed  it  all. 

At  the  Academy  he  was  very  regular  in  his  attendance 
and  he  was  several  times  elected  director,  an  office  which 
is  renewed  every  three  months.  *  *  The  Academic  Fran^aise, ' ' 
says  Taine  (March  14,  1880),  "is  a  sort  of  club  composed  of 
very  diverse  people,  but  very  polite,  who  chat  familiarly 
with  perfect  equality ;  burning  political  and  social  questions 
cool  off  in  the  hall  where  the  dictionary  is  made;^'  each 
presents  only  that  part  of  himself  which  is  acceptable  to 
others,  and  you  find  there  the  urbanity  of  the  last  cen- 
tury. "  ^°  As  Renan  was  already  a  member  of  the  Institut 
munificently  remunerated  with  1,500  francs  a  year,  he  re- 
ceived no  further  compensation  by  reason  of  his  membership 
in  the  Academy,  excepting  such  portion  of  an  annual  allow- 
ance of  300  francs  as  he  may  have  acquired  from  attendance 
at  meetings.^^  Although  his  books  sold  by  the  thousands, 
we  cannot  wonder  at  his  remark  uttered  during  a  council 
on  domestic  finance:  "Money  shows  no  signs  of  rolling 
our  way."" 

IV 

Renan  was  during  all  these  years  a  public  character.  His 
comings  and  goings  were  chronicled,  and  every  word  he 
spoke  to  an  audience  was  preserved  in  newspaper  reports. 
A  considerable  number  of  these  speeches  were  gathered  in 
his  volumes.  Addresses  and  Lectures  (1887)  and  Scattered 
Leaves  (1892),  but  a  great  many  remain  buried  in  the  Jour- 

"  Eenan  became  a  member  of  the  committee  on  the  dictionary  in  1888. 

"Even  the  heated  passion  that  prevented  Ollivier  from  speaking  at 
his  reception  cooled  down  to  such  an  extent  that  he  was  later  elected 
director  and  received  others. 

"  For  the  practice  of  the  Institut,  see  De  Franqueville,  Le  premier 
siecle  de  I'Instiiut  de  France. 

"Mme.  Darmesteter,  p.  246. 

335 


ERNEST  RENAN 

nal  des  Debats  and  other  dailies.  Such  pronouncements 
should  rarely  be  considered  apart  from  the  occasion  on  which 
they  were  delivered.  Most  of  them  indeed  are  serious  enough, 
but  a  few  are  merely  festive.  It  is  really  comical  to  see 
a  savage  moral  philosopher  tearing  to  tatters  and  tossing 
about  an  agreeable  after-dinner  talk.  Perhaps  such  things 
were  not  worth  preserving,  but  Levy  wanted  to  make  an- 
other book  and  Renan  complacently  allowed  himself  to  be 
persuaded.^'  On  the  whole,  we  cannot  regret  the  preserva- 
tion of  this  small  harvest  in  Renan 's  lighter  tone. 

In  the  four  addresses  delivered  at  academic  receptions 
(Pasteur,  April  22,  1882;  Cherbuliez,  May  25,  1882;  de 
Lesseps,  April  23,  1885;  Jules  Claretie,  February  21,  1889), 
Renan  is  at  his  happiest.  Here  we  find  as  a  background  a 
repetition  of  all  his  principal  ideas:  Science,  disinterested 
criticism,  the  ideal,  liberty,  aristocracy,  history,  the  revolu- 
tion, universal  suffrage,  the  elite,  the  French  language,  the 
function  of  the  Academy — and,  as  in  his  most  attractive 
early  essays,  these  ideas  occur  as  reflections  attached  to  the 
individuals  about  whom  he  is  speaking.  Every  thought  is 
presented  with  the  utmost  courtesy  and  tolerance,  with 
an  appreciation  of  the  element  of  reason  animating  the 
other  side.  He  draws  portraits  of  personal  friends — ^Littre, 
Cherbuliez,  De  Lesseps;  he  indulges  in  reminiscences  such 
as  those  of  the  Remie,  with  Buloz,  Sainte-Beuve,  George 
Sand ;  of  his  experiences  in  Egypt  or  of  his  discussions  with 
Jules  Claretie  at  the  home  of  Michelet;  he  tells  charming 
little  anecdotes;  for  example,  one  of  Buloz  exclaiming  to 
Cherbuliez,  who  had  eaten  a  doubtful  mushroom :  '  *  Cherbu- 
liez, what  are  you  doing?  You  haven't  finished  your  story 
for  the  Bevue  yet";  or  one  of  de  Lesseps  amusing  the  Khe- 
dive by  allowing  his  set  of  Sevres  china  to  be  broken  by  a 
refractory  camel  and  thus  assuring  the  construction  of  the 

"Preface  to  Feuilles  dMachees. 

336 


PUBLIC  ADDRESSES 

Suez  Canal.  The  individual  trait  is  always  deftly  chosen 
and  given  its  full  value.  Above  all,  Renan  is  always  wholly 
and  nothing  but  himself.  "Your  address  is  charming," 
he  said  to  de  Lesseps,  * '  for  it  is  your  very  self. ' '  And  these 
pieces  have  this  same  exceptional  charm.  He  means  what 
he  says  and  he  approaches  everything  with  the  freshness 
of  unfeigned  enthusiasm.  As  the  Institut  is  the  greatest 
of  French  establishments.  Napoleon  I  becomes  "our  illus- 
trious colleague,  General  Bonaparte."  There  are  no  empty 
generalizations,  but  always  vivid  associations,  individual 
incidents,  personal  experiences.  Even  Pasteur's  abstruse 
scientific  discoveries  are  simplified  and  attached  to  interest- 
ing human  emotions.  Of  the  cure  of  rabies,  he  says :  ' '  Hu- 
manity will  owe  you  not  only  the  suppression  of  a  horrible 
malady,  but  also  that  of  a  sad  anomaly,  the  suspicion  always 
mingled  with  the  caresses  of  the  animal  in  whom  nature 
best  shows  us  her  benevolent  smile." 

These  pages  are  thickly  sown  with  unexpected  side  re- 
marks, of  which  the  following  are  specimens: 

Truth  is  a  great  coquette,  Sir;  she  does  not  like  to  be  wooed 

with  too  much  passion.  ,^     .  „^  x 

(Pasteur,  p.  24.) 

I  am  tempted  to  add  to  the  eight  beatitudes  a  ninth:    "Blessed 

are  the  blind,  for  they  have  no  doubt."  /^     ,    ,.  ^„  ^ 

(Cherbuliez,   p.   97.) 

Surely  no  one  in  our  century  has  been  more  persuasive  than 
you,  and  consequently  no  one  has  been  more  eloquent. 

(De  Lesseps,  p.  130.) 

One  passage,  dealing  vrith  the  general  who  will  lead 
France  some  day  to  victory,  has  been  looked  on  as  a 
prophecy : 

How  we  shall  elect  him  by  acclamation,  without  worrying  about 
his  writings!  Oh!  what  a  meeting  when  he  is  received!  How 
eagerly  seats  for  it  wHl  be  begged !    Happy  he  who  shall  preside ! 

(De  Lesseps,  p.  134.) 
337 


ERNEST  RENAN 

In  general  treatment,  there  is  constant  variety.  Receiving 
Pasteur,  Renan  gives  a  brief  review  of  the  newcomer's  dis- 
coveries and  then  devotes  the  bulk  of  his  address  to  Littre 
as  critic  and  scholar,  with  accompanying  discussions  of  his- 
tory and  philosophy.^*  A  month  later,  almost  the  whole 
speech  is  given  to  the  life  and  writings  of  the  candidate 
himself,  Cherbuliez,  with  only  a  brief  reference  to  his  prede- 
cessor. De  Lesseps,  of  course,  takes  practically  all  the  space 
in  the  speech  at  his  reception,  and  Henri  Martin,  whom  he 
replaced,  is  scanted,  as  is  justly  remarked  by  Henry  Hous- 
saye,  who  reviewed  this  meeting  in  the  Dehats.^^  In  its 
discouraged  tone,  the  last  address  (1889)  shows  Renan 's 
failing  vitality.  Neither  Jules  Claretie  nor  his  predecessor, 
Cuvillier-Fleury,  receives  much  attention.  The  subject  is 
rather  the  character  of  the  nineteenth  century,  the  vanity  of 
literary  fame,  the  obnoxiousness  of  naturalistic  novels  and 
the  failure  of  the  Revolution,  then  celebrating  its  centenary. 
Renan  had  often  expressed  his  political  disenchantment  and 
his  fears  for  the  future  of  France,  but  rarely  had  the  tone 
of  any  public  utterance  been  so  discouraged.  Yet,  after 
all,  this  Academy  is  a  pleasant  place.  Let  us  enjoy  what 
remains  to  us  of  life.  We  have,  indeed,  been  well  treated  by 
our  age  and  our  nation.  "Poor  mother  country!"  he  con- 
cludes, "it  is  because  we  love  her  that  we  are  sometimes 
a  little  hard  on  her.  You,  Sir,  have  indeed  well  said  that 
she  will  ever  be  the  essence  of  our  hopes  and  our  joys." 

Another  academic  discourse,  which  Henry  Houssaye,  re- 

**Eenan  wrote  to  Amari,  April  22,  1882:  "Two  addresses  at  the 
Acad6tQie  Frangaise  in  one  month!  that  is  a  great  deal.  I  am  over- 
whelmed. But  I  hope  Thursday  to  pay  homage  to  our  dear  and  great 
Littr6,  so  unjustly  confiscated  by  the  blacks."  Carteggio  di  Michele 
Amari,  vol.  ii. 

"Debats,  April  24,  1885.  The  speech  of  de  Lesseps  fills  a  little 
over  a  column;  Kenan's  speech  a  little  over  five  columns.  Houssaye 's 
complaint  is  that  de  Lesseps  did  not  know  anything  about  Henri 
Martin,  but  that  Renan  might  have  said  more.  All  of  these  addresses 
axe,  of  course^  reported  in  the  B&yats  and  published  in  full, 

338 


PUBLIC  ADDRESSES 

porting  it  in  the  Debats,  August  5,  1881,  calls  "a  marvel- 
ous address,"  a  triumph,  was  delivered  in  distributing  the 
prizes  for  virtue  for  which  the  Academy  is  the  legatee.'^ 
It  is  the  talk  of  a  man  with  a  warm  heart  and  a  full  mind, 
telling  little  stories  of  suffering,  devotion  and  heroism,  with 
a  peculiar  combination  of  intimate  sympathy  and  genial  de- 
tachment, to  which  he  adds  the  reflections  of  a  philosopher. 
Virtue  and  self-devotion  were  in  E^nan's  view  divinely  im- 
planted instincts,  which  no  rewards  could  stimulate  and 
no  penalties  uproot.'^ 

Another  group  of  important  addresses  consists  of  those 
delivered  before  learned  societies.  In  1880  Renan  was  in- 
vited to  give  the  Hibbert  Lectures  on  the  history  of  religion 
at  Langham  Place  in  April.  He  had  been  in  London  twice 
before,  in  1851,  to  study  manuscripts  in  the  British  Mu- 
seum, and  in  1870,  when  the  party  from  Norway  spent  a 
night  at  the  French  embassy ;  ^*  but  this  was  the  first  occasion 
on  which  he  appeared  as  a  celebrated  and  cordially  welcomed 
guest.  Widely  entertained,  he  distinguished  himself  by  his 
agreeable  manners  and  his  brilliant  talk.^*  One  week-end  he 
visited  Max  ^luller  at  Oxford  and  was  delighted  with  the 
place,  but  surprised  at  the  absence  of  scholarly  work.*"  The 
whole  trip  occupied  only  a  fortnight.*^ 

The  subject  of  the  four  Hibbert  Lectures  was  *  *  Rome  and 
Christianity"  (April  6,  9,  13,  14),  and  an  additional  dis- 
course on  "Marcus  Aurelius"  was  delivered  (April  16)  be- 
fore the  Royal  Institution,  The  English  hearers  particularly 
remarked  the  perfection  of  the  speaker's  enunciation.     As 

"Discours  et  conferences. 

•*An  address  as  presiding  officer  of  the  Five  Academies,  October  25, 
1887,  though  slight,  is  based  on  oft  expressed  ideas.  It  is  reprinted 
in  the  posthumous  volume,  Melanges  religieux  et  historiques, 

"  Goncourt  Journal,  vol.  iv,  p.  268. 

*We  have  glimpses  of  this  visit  in  Mrs.  Simpson's  Many  Memo- 
ries of  Many  People  and  Mrs.  Humphry  Ward's  Becollections. 

*  Letter  to  Berthelot 

"Benan  was  back  in  Paris  April  18. 

339 


ERNEST  RENAN 

for  the  substance,  it  consists  of  nothing  but  selections,  often 
verbally,  from  the  Origins.  The  lecture  on  "Marcus  Au- 
relius"  might  have  been  read  from  proofs  of  the  book,  for 
the  brief  introduction  is  the  only  part  prepared  for  the  oc- 
cation.  It  is  interesting  to  compare  the  last  page  of  this 
lecture  with  the  last  page  of  the  volume,  for  Renan  has 
characteristically  omitted  every  phrase  that  might  offend  his 
audience.  These  five  lectures  were  published  as  Conferences 
d'Angleterte}"^ 

Three  of  Renan 's  public  lectures  were  given  before  the 
Scientific  Association  of  France,  a  society  founded  in  1864 
by  Leverrier,  which  held  meetings  in  the  large  auditorium  of 
the  Sorbonne.  The  first  of  these,  March  2,  1878,  on  "The 
Services  of  Philology  to  the  Historical  Sciences, "  *^  is  a 
popular  exposition  of  the  results  of  comparative  philology, 
concluding  with  a  warning  against  applying  the  ideas  of 
language  and  race  to  politics,  the  basis  of  nationality  being 
free  consent  of  people  to  live  together.  "A  nation,"  says 
the  lecturer,  *  *  is  above  all  a  soul,  a  mind,  a  spiritual  family, 
resulting  from  common  recollections,  common  glories,  some- 
times also  common  griefs.  .  .  .  Man  belongs  neither  to  his 
language  nor  to  his  race;  he  belongs  first  of  all  to  himself, 
for  he  is  first  of  all  a  free  and  moral  being."  This  idea 
is  developed  historically  and  philosophically  in  the  second 
of  these  lectures.**  "What  is  a  Nation?"  a  discourse  to 
which  Renan  attached  great  importance,*^  actually  repeat- 
ing himself  in  the  preface  to  Addresses  and  Lectures,  in 
which  most  of  these  pieces  are  published.  He  sums  up  in 
the  words:  "Man -is  the  slave  neither  of  his  race,  nor  his 
language,  nor  his  religion,  nor  the  course  of  rivers,  nor  the 
direction  of  mountain  chains.    A  great  aggregation  of  sane 

**June  9,  1880.     They  had  been  reported  in  reswme  in  the  DSbats. 
**Biscours  et  conferences.     In  the  Histoire  chi  pcuple  d' Israel,  vol. 
ii,  p.  2,  this  piece  is  called  "Les  Langues  et  lea  races." 

"March  11,  1882;  reported  in  full  in  the  Debats,  March  12  and  14. 
^•See  Preface  of  Discours  et  conferences. 

340 


PUBLIC  ADDRESSES 

and  warm-hearted  men  creates  a  moral  consciousness  called 
a  nation.  So  far  as  this  moral  consciousness  proves  its  force 
through  sacrifices  demanded  by  the  abdication  of  the  indi- 
vidual for  the  profit  of  a  community,  it  is  legitimate,  it  has 
a  right  to  exist.  If  doubts  arise  over  frontiers,  consult  the 
populations  involved.  They  surely  have  a  right  to  an  opin- 
ion on  the  question."  (P.  309.) 

In  politics,  as  in  religion,  Renan  is  opposed  to  transcen- 
dental dogmatism,  to  the  substitution  of  formulas  for  the 
living  reality.  His  third  lecture  to  this  society,  **Islamism 
and  Science,"  *®  is  a  sort  of  popular  review  of  a  portion  of 
the  subject  dealt  with  in  his  Averraes,  the  Mussulman's 
hatred  of  science.  His  own  summary  reads:  "During  the 
first  half  of  its  existence,  Islamism  did  not  hinder  the  scien- 
tific movement  in  Mussulman  lands ;  during  the  second  half, 
it  smothered  this  movement  in  its  bosom  and  this  to  its 
harm."  (P.  409.)  The  Afghan  Sheik,  Gemmal-Eddin,  ob- 
jected in  the  Debats  to  the  notion  that  Islam  was  in  this 
respect  any  worse  than  Christianity,  and  Renan  answered, 
showing  that,  though  the  same  antiscientific  spirit  animated 
both  religious  systems,  the  Christian  lands  had  partially 
emancipated  themselves  while  Islam  had  not,  though  he 
hopes  that  enlightened  Mohammedans  will  secure  a  similar 
emancipation.  The  letter  of  the  Sheik  had  been  translated 
for  the  Debats  from  the  Arabic,  presumably  by  Renan  him- 
self. At  any  rate,  the  episode  is  a  striking  illustration  of 
the  great  scholar 's  courtesy,  tolerance,  and  faith  in  science.  " 

Two  further  lectures  of  1883,  "Judaism  and  Christianity" 
and  "Judaism  as  Race  and  as  Religion,"  delivered  respec- 
tively before  the  Society  for  Jewish  Studies  and  the  Cercle 
Saint-Simon,  a  noted  historical  association,  deal  with  phases 
of  the  subject  treated  in  his  great  books.**     On  August  7 

**  March  29,  1883 ;  Debats,  March  30 ;  Discours  et  conferences. 
"See  Debats,  May  18  and  19,  1883;  also  Discours  et  conferences. 
*•  These  also  are  fully  reported  in  the  Debats. 

341 


ERNEST  RENAN 

fie  presided  at  the  distribution  of  prizes  at  the  Lyeee  Louis- 
le-Grand.  In  March  there  had  been  on  the  part  of  the 
students  of  this  school  certain  riotous  demonstrations  re- 
quiring the  intervention  of  the  police  and  leading  to  ex- 
pulsions.*^ It  was  possibly  for  this  reason  that  the  Minister 
of  Public  Instruction  assigned  his  most  distinguished  sub- 
ordinate to  this  task.  At  any  rate,  Renan,  who  had  just 
been  elected  Administrator  of  the  College  de  France,  per- 
formed his  functions  admirably.  Nothing  could  be  more 
lofty  than  the  views  he  inculcated  of  science,  of  duty,  of  the 
necessity  of  strenuous  endeavor;  and  yet,  what  charm,  what 
good  humor !  ^°  Toward  the  close  of  the  address,  unable 
to  resist  a  tendency  to  rascality,  he  imagines  one  of  the 
young  men  before  him  writing  in  1910  or  1920  a  critical 
article  on  the  occasion:  "The  idea  of  sending  us  a  man, 
inoffensive  without  doubt,  but  the  last  who  should  have  been 
chosen  when  it  was  a  question  of  affirming  authority,  of  show- 
ing firmness,  ...  He  gave  us  good  advice ;  but  what  spine- 
lessness !  What  lack  of  wrath,  against  the  age ! ' '  Truly,  the 
authorities  must  have  squirmed.  But  the  orator  concludes, 
with  the  utmost  propriety :  * '  There  will  always  be  good  to 
do,  truth  to  seek,  a  fatherland  to  serve  and  to  love. ' '  °^ 

Two  lectures  remain,  both  on  subjects  dear  to  Renan 's 
heart,  the  French  language  a  perfect  vehicle  for  every  idea 
and  the  dispersion  of  scholarly  work  throughout  France  in- 
stead of  concentrating  it  in  Paris.  "Can  one  work  in  the 
Provinces?"  (June  15,  1889),  the  last  address  delivered 
by  him  in  the  amphitheater  of  the  Sorbonne,  was  pronounced 
before  the  general  meeting  of  learned  societies  which  gath- 
ered every  year  in  the  capital.  While  the  great  center 
must  remain,  Renan  points  out,  not  without  humor,  the 
advantages  of  a  more  secluded  life  and  the  various  kinds  of 

*See  DSbats,  March  13-17. 
"See  Debats,   August  8. 
'^Discours  et  conferences. 

342 


PUBLIC  ADDRESSES 

tasks  that  can  be  perfectly  well  accomplished  in  the  smaller 
towns.  The  year  before  (February  2,  1888)  the  Alliance 
Frangaise  had  held  a  matinee  in  the  Vaudeville  Theatre  un- 
der the  patronage  of  Mme.  Camot  and  other  distinguished 
ladies.  Two  little  plays  were  acted  and  songs  and  recita- 
tions were  rendered,  the  performers  being  the  leading  ar- 
tists of  the  Opera  and  the  Comedie  Francaise.  At  the  end 
of  the  long  afternoon  Renan  spoke,  and  we  may  be  sure  that 
his  address  was  not  the  least  interesting  part  of  the  enter- 
tainment. His  amusing  picture  of  himself  pleading  for  a 
mitigation  of  his  penalties  in  the  other  world  and  thereby 
making  the  Eternal  smile,  together  with  the  hope  that  he 
will  not  have  to  translate  his  petitions  into  German,  is  ex- 
cellent wit  for  the  occasion.  To  tack  it  upon  the  author's 
philosophy  as  some  do,  is  an  elephantine  blunder.*^ 

As  Administrator  and  as  member  of  the  Institut,  Renan 
was  often  called  upon  to  pronounce  speeches  on  funeral 
occasions,  at  inhumations  or  at  the  dedication  of  monuments 
in  cemeteries  or  elsewhere.  He  developed  a  special  aptitude 
for  saying  something  appropriate  and  his  ideas  associated 
themselves  admirably  with  the  eminence  of  the  characters 
who  formed  the  subjects  of  his  discourses.  Only  a  half  dozen 
of  these  pieces  have  been  collected ;  many  more  are  buried  in 
the  Dehats  or  in  pamphlets  published  by  the  Institut.'^'  We 
doubtless  have  enough  of  them,  though  perhaps  we  may 
regret  that  the  loyal  tribute  to  fimile  Egger  has  not  been 
rescued.** 

Other  speeches  were  called  for  at  the  unveiling  of  statues 
in  the  home  province,  a  task  in  which  Jules  Simon  and  Renan 
were  often  associated  as  the  two  most  illustrious  of  the  sons 

^*Debat8,  February  3,  1888;   FevMles  detachees. 

"  For  some  of   these  pamphlets  see   Vicaire,  Manuel. 

**  Obituary  notice  in  Dibats,  September  4,  1884,  and  tribute  at  the 
unveiling  of  the  monument  in  Montpamasse  cemetery,  Dibats,  May  31, 
1886.  ' '  In  vacation,  we  were  in  the  habit  of  exchanging  Latin  versea," 
is  a  fact  we  are  glad  to  know. 

343 


ERNEST  RENAN 

of  Brittany.  Then  there  were  banquets  and  festivals  of 
various  sorts,  Quimper  in  1885,  a  visit  of  some  Welshmen 
in  1889,  the  Felibres  and  Brehat  in  1891,  and  innumerable 
Celtic  dinners,  often  extensively  reported.  Two  dinner 
speeches  Renan  has  seen  fit  to  preserve,  his  greeting  to  Ber- 
thelot  at  a  banquet  of  the  Scientific  Society  and  his  talk  to 
the  students  at  one  of  their  annual  feasts,  over  which  he 
was,  according  to  university  custom,  called  to  preside.  The 
only  reason  for  prolonging  such  things  beyond  the  moment 
of  utterance  is  to  add  another  stroke  to  the  portrait  of  the 
speaker. 


Such  book  reviewing  as  Renan  did  during  his  final  period 
was  practically  confined  to  the  Journal  des  Savants,  where 
he  averaged  one  serious  study  a  year,  generally  upon  some 
work  in  Hebrew  or  on  religious  history.^'^  In  the  Revue 
de  deux  Mcmdes,  he  published  nothing  but  advance  chapters 
of  his  History  of  the  People  of  Israel,  the  only  exception  be- 
ing the  "Examination  of  Philosophic  Conscience"  in  1889. 
In  the  Debats  two  or  three  brief  notices,  and  two  longer  es- 
says, the  discussion  of  Amiel's  Journal^^  and  of  Janet's 
Cousin,^''  were  his  only  efforts  in  the  old  manner.  To  Amiel 
he  was  led  by  his  friend  Charles  Ritter,  one  of  Amiel's  lit- 
erary executors,  and  the  book  on  Cousin  revived  his  own 
experiences  of  former  years  and  elicited  a  really  warm  tribute 
to  the  half -forgotten  master. 

Few  essays  of  Renan  have  received  from  the  moralists 
more  severe  reprobation  than  has  been  bestowed  upon  the 

"  Though  generally  of  sufficient  interest,  only  a  few  of  the  most 
important  of  these  have  been  collected.  See  Nouvelles  etudes  d'his- 
toire  religieuse,  "Nouveaux  Travaux  sur  le  bouddhisme, "  and  in  MS- 
langes  religieux  et  historiques,  "Le  L6gende  de  Mahomet,"  and  "La 
Topographic  chr^tienne  de  Lyon." 

^•B^bats,  September  30  and  October  7,  1884. 

"Ihid.,  June  13,  1885. 

344 


PERIODICAL  ARTICLES 

reflections  attached  to  Amiel's  Journal.  That  drunkenness 
should  not  be  suppressed,  but  should  be  rendered  kindly, 
amiable  and  moral — a  truly  shocking  idea;  that  only  those 
who  had  contributed  greatly  to  civilization  should  be  en- 
titled to  resurrection,  the  rest  being  condemned  to  everlast- 
ing oblivion — ^the  inhuman  fancy  of  an  aristocrat;  that  we 
should  be  ironically  resigned  to  the  deceptions  we  know  to 
be  practiced  on  us  by  God — the  negation  of  all  virtuous 
philosophy.  Indeed,  the  revulsion  against  a  certain  mor- 
bidness in  Amiel's  thought  had  carried  Renan  a  little  too 
far  in  the  opposite  direction.  It  was  all,  however,  a  matter 
of  emphasis,  as  the  ideas  themselves,  in  a  somewhat  more 
subordinate  relationship,  belong  to  his  habitual  thought. 
"We  think  a  man  is  religious  when  he  is  content  with  the 
good  God  and  with  himself" — **The  sum  of  happiness  in 
human  life  should  be  increased.  Man  should  not  be  told  of 
sin,  expiation,  redemption,  but  of  kindliness,  gayety,  indul- 
gence, good  humor,  resignation."  This  is  doctrine  Renan 
had  learned  from  experience,  and  his  experience  as  a  worker 
also  led  him  to  point  out  the  instable  foundation  of  Amiel's 
life.  "He  has  not  a  sufficiently  definite  conception  of  the 
aim  of  the  human  mind,  which  gives  a  serious  basis  to  life. 
He  is  neither  a  scholar  nor  a  man  of  letters."  In  other 
words,  the  fundamental  morality  is  purposeful  labor. 

Suddenly,  in  January,  1886,  the  readers  of  the  Dehats 
were  shocked  or  delighted,  according  to  their  mode  of  tak- 
ing things,  by  a  fevdlleton,  "Prologue  in  Heaven,"  °^  a 
little  dialogue  in  which  Gabriel  reports  to  the  Eternal  va- 
rious happenings  on  earth  which  have  scandalized  him.  The 
form  is  irreverent,  but  the  content  is  Renan 's  usual  philos- 
ophy. Some  two  months  later  (February  27),  appeared  an- 
other feuilleton,  "1802,  Dialogue  of  the  Dead,"  written  at 
the  request  of  Jules  Claretie  to  be  spoken  at  the  Theatre 

"Dromes  philosophigues. 

345 


ERNEST  RENAN 

Frangais  by  the  leading  actors  on  the  anniversary  of  Victor 
Hugo's  birth,**®  It  was  the  first  time,  said  Lemaitre,  in  his 
*  *  Semaine  Dramatique, ' '  ®°  that  a  professor  of  Hebrew  at 
the  College  de  France  had  worked  for  the  House  of  Moliere. 
In  the  representation  the  little  piece  proved  a  brilliant  suc- 
cess. Renan  's  last  appearance  as  a  feuilletoniste  was  on  Jan- 
uary 1,  1887,  when  he  published  "Letter  to  M ,  Min- 
ister," the  recipient  naturally  being  recognized  by  all  as 
Berthelot,  who  for  a  few  months  held  the  portfolio  of  Public 
Instruction  in  the  cabinet  of  Goblet.®^  The  genial  detach- 
ment of  age,  its  recollections  combined  with  a  sort  of  sweet 
irony,  could  hardly  be  better  voiced,  while  the  application  of 
certain  miracles  of  Krishna  and  Buddha  to  the  budget  is  in 
a  manner  that  belongs  to  Renan  alone. 

One  further  article  must  be  mentioned,  "Recollections 
of  the  Journal  des  Dehats,"  contributed  to  the  book  pub- 
lished to  celebrate  the  centennial  of  that  newspaper  in  1889. 
To  the  new  writers,  Renan  was  a  survivor  from  an  age  of 
giants;  the  regularity  of  his  attendance  at  the  monthly  De- 
bats  dinners,  where  he  treated  even  the  novices  as  colleagues, 
was  a  glory  and  a  joy  to  them ;  and  every  article  he  sent  in 
was  a  momentous  event.  In  these  recollections,  he  pays 
generous  tribute  to  de  Sacy  and  other  associates  of  bygone 
days.  How  frequently  during  these  years  he  was  compelled 
to  live  in  the  past ! 

So  far  as  substance  was  concerned,  Renan  had  in  these  oc- 
casional writings  little  that  was  new  to  say.  "By  repeti- 
tion, the  charm  has  diminished,"  said  Scherer  in  reporting 
his  reception  at  the  Academy  at  1879.^^ 

We  have  too  much  nuance;  the  challenge  to  vulgar  prejudice 
has  somewhat  lost  its  piquancy;  the  premeditated  contradictions, 

''Ibid. 

''Dibats,  March  1. 

'^Feuilles  detacMes. 

"ttudes  sur  la  littSrature  contemporavne,  vol.  vii,  p.  349. 

346 


PHILOSOPHIC  DRAMAS 

destined  to  show  the  various  aspects  of  truth,  risk  becoming  a 
mere  sport.  .  .  .  What  has  long  struck  me  in  M.  Renan  is  the 
unexpected  in  his  resources.  I  have  just  pointed  out  some  repe- 
tition in  his  philosophic  fantasies,  but  this  is  by  no  means  true 
of  his  style.  He  has  written  so  much  that  it  seems  he  must  be 
fatigued,  worn  out,  condemned  like  all  the  rest  to  copy  himself. 
But  no:  it  is  just  at  such  a  moment  that  one  of  the  hidden 
springs  of  this  rich  nature  bursts  forth  suddenly  with  a  new  stream 
of  penetrating  and  sublime  poetry. 

These  remarks  are  especially  applicable  to  the  Philosophic 
Dramas  (July,  1888),  the  two  Caliban  pieces,  having  been 
supplemented  with  the  Priest  of  Nerm  (1885)  and  the  Ab- 
bess of  Jouarre  (1886).  Without  any  very  good  reason,  the 
Abbess  had  shocked  everybody  excepting  Jules  Lemaitre, 
whose  notice  in  the  Debats^^  was  calculated  rather  to  aug- 
ment than  to  diminish  the  agitation  of  the  righteous.  "When 
the  little  group  of  pieces  appeared  as  a  single  volume,  the 
critics  hailed  it  as  the  author's  most  original  contribution  to 
literature.** 

Renan  had  reached  a  point  at  which  the  philosophical  dia- 
logue was  not  sufficiently  complex  to  express  the  nuance  of 
his  thought ;  he  therefore  added  imaginative  dramatic  action, 
making  his  Philosophic  Dramas  a  sequence  to  his  Philo- 
sophic Dialogues,  and  predicting,  at  the  same  time,  a  devel- 
opment in  which  even  such  action  would  not  suffice,  but 
would  need  the  addition  of  music,  the  music  of  ideas,  not 
that  of  mere  entertainment,  to  express  the  more  impalpable 
shades  of  human  meditation.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  every 
idea  presented  in  these  pieces  is  already  familiar  to  the 
reader  of  Renan 's  previous  works.  The  touch,  however,  is 
even  lighter  than  before.  These  * '  recreations  of  an  idealist, ' ' 
as  he  calls  them,  though  serious  in  subject  matter,  are  the 
production  of  leisure  hours  and  the  series  was  abandoned 

"October  25,  1886;  Impressions  de  Theatre,  vol.  i,  p.  255. 
**I]i  this  view  Braudes  seems  to  have  set  the  pace. 

347 


ERNEST  RENAN 

when  all  the  writer's  spare  time  was  needed  for  the  com- 
pletion of  his  Jewish  history. 

In  Caliban,  a  sequel,  though  in  no  sense  a  competitor  to 
The  Tempest,  there  is  nothing  new,  except  the  form.  It  is, 
however,  a  remarkable  concentration  of  Renan  's  views  about 
the  triumph  of  democracy.  Far  from  being  dramatically 
impersonal,  practically  every  character,  even  the  coquette, 
the  schoolmaster,  the  Wandering  Jew,  speaks  or  at  least 
represents  the  thoughts  of  the  author.  The  plot  is  of  the 
simplest,  a  mere  series  of  episodes  and  conversations.  Pros- 
pero,  returned  to  Milan,  resumes  his  studies  and  is  over- 
thrown by  the  populace  led  by  Caliban.  The  triumphant 
leader  occupies  Prospero's  bed  and  becomes  an  upholder  of 
property  rights,  settled  order,  elegance  and  the  arts.  The 
Duke  accepts  his  fate,  reserving  only  the  privilege  of  ironi- 
cal laughter,  but  Ariel  vanishes,  absorbed  into  nature.  The 
play  is  an  allegory,  as  well  as  a  direct  expression  of  philo- 
sophical ideas.  Each  of  the  main  characters  becomes  a 
double  symbol:  Prospero  is  both  royalty  and  science;  Cali- 
ban, vulgar  humanity  and  the  leader  of  the  sans-culottes ; 
Ariel,  the  idea  and  ideal  beauty.  Around  these  three  are 
gathered  many  others  to  represent  shades  of  opinion — aris- 
tocrats, scholars,  artists,  bourgeois,  populace,  churchmen, 
the  Jew,  and  Gonzalo,  who  joins  Caliban's  council  to  aid 
the  new  government  with  his  experience.  The  allegory  is 
obvious.  Sans-culottism  triumphant  puts  on  the  garb  of 
aristocracy,  adopts,  as  far  as  possible,  its  manners,  its 
pleasures,  its  science  and  art,  and  imitates  its  elegance. 
Meanwhile,  the  aristocrats  persist,  some  joining  the  new  rul- 
ing class,  others  continuing  their  diversions  or  their  avoca- 
tions; and  the  church,  though  powerless  to  persecute — the 
inquisition  had  demanded  Prospero  from  Caliban  and  had 
been  refused — retains  its  dogmas  and  its  tendencies.  Idesis, 
however,  have  lost  all  power  over  the  masses,  and  ideal 
beauty  fades  into  the  general  substance  of  the  universe.    It 

348 


PHILOSOPHIC  DRAMAS 

is  Renan  who  speaks,  expressing  the  varied  nuances  of  his 
thought  in  the  contrast  and  conflict  of  abstract  personali- 
ties. The  music  he  imagines — Gounod  was  to  have  composed 
one  melody — has  never  been  written.  As  it  stands,  the  piece 
is  perhaps  the  only  worthy  sequel  to  a  Shakespearean  drama. 
The  Elixir  of  Life  possesses  less  unity  than  Caliban.  The 
main  theme  is  the  progress  of  science  in  spite  of  theological, 
political,  class  and  personal  opposition,  its  escape  from  total 
suppression  in  ages  of  darkness  resulting  from  its  applica- 
tions in  medicine;  but  many  prominent  subsidiary  ideas, 
even  including  copyright  and  patents,  are  embodied  in  inci- 
dents and  personalities.  The  feminine  influence  upon  hu- 
man affairs  is  strongly  stressed  in  the  discarded  and  the 
actual  mistress  of  the  Pope  and  in  two  coquettish  nuns. 
Prospero,  who  is  partly  identified  with  Amaud  de  Ville- 
neuve,  continues  his  investigations  under  the  protection  of 
Pope  Clement  at  Avignon,  though  assailed  by  the  Inquisi- 
tion, the  Emperor,  the  nobles  and  populace  of  Milan,  and  a 
former  reactionary  mistress  of  the  head  of  the  Church.  At 
the  end  he  dies  by  a  process  of  euthanasia  induced  by  his 
own  will,  and  his  body  is  sunk  in  the  Rhone,  the  officiating 
cardinal  to  announce  his  death  as  a  case  of  suicide  if  the 
body  is  found,  and,  if  it  remains  at  the  bottom  of  the  river, 
to  declare  that  he  was  carried  off  by  the  Devil.  Prospero, 
who  represents  "the  higher  reason,  momentarily  deprived 
of  its  authority  over  the  lower  portions  of  humanity"  (pref- 
ace), is  also  Renan  himself.  Throughout  he  propounds  ideas 
about  the  progress  and  functions  of  science  enunciated  in 
The  Future  of  Science  and  other  works.  The  author  is  also 
curiously  impersonated  on  the  imaginative  side  by  an  old 
Breton  bard,  who,  on  drinking  the  Elixir,  dreams  details  of 
Renan 's  life  with  Henriette,  even  to  the  childish  incident  of 
his  biting  her  arm.  Ariel  and  Caliban  appear  only  in  the 
last  act  for  the  purpose  of  being  reconciled  by  Prospero, 
an  obvious  allegory  of  Renan 's  reconciliation  with  the  re- 

349 


ERNEST  RENAN 

publican  form  of  government,  stated  in  the  preface,  and  of 
the  spread  of  ideas  among  the  populace  through  the  achieve- 
ments of  science;  Ariel,  symbol  of  ideal  beauty,  becomes 
flesh  through  his  love  for  a  young  woman,  an  equally  obvious 
allegory  of  the  relations  of  beauty  and  love  to  the  ideal  in 
human  life.  Of  all  the  personages  the  Pope  is  the  most 
nearly  human,  being  a  typical  freethinking  Renaissance 
prelate.  The  German  ambassador,  Siffroi,  and  the  German 
Emperor,  in  his  demand  for  Prospero's  extradition,  speak 
the  ferocious  language  only  too  bitterly  known  to  Renan 
through  the  experience  of  1870,  and  now  familiar  to  all  the 
world.  The  thirty  or  so  remaining  dramatis  personce,  most 
of  them  easily  recognizable  types,  it  would  be  futile  to  dis- 
cuss. It  is  interesting  to  note,  on  the  other  hand,  that  the 
dying  Prospero  utters  the  wishes  of  Renan  at  the  time  and 
place  of  writing: 

Have  them  play  melodies  of  Amalfi  and  the  Bay  of  Naples. 
Take   heed  that  I  see  no  sad  face  and  hear  no  sigh  of  grief. 

Eternal  and  good  Being,  I  thank  thee  for  existence.  I  have 
collaborated  in  all  thy  works,  I  have  served  all  thy  ends.  I  bless 
thee. 

The  Priest  of  Nemi  represents  Messianism  and  its  mar- 
tyrdom,^^ together  with  the  political  law  that  "crime  is 
often  rewarded  and  virtue  generally  punished. ' '  It  pictures 
"the  egotism  of  the  nobility,  the  silliness  of  the  populace, 
the  impotence  of  thinkers,  the  infamy  of  a  lying  and  the 
weakness  of  a  liberal  priesthood,  the  errors  into  which  pa- 
triotism easily  falls,  the  illusions  of  liberalism,  the  incurable 
baseness  of  low-minded  men."  For  this  purpose  Renan 
chose  the  old  story  of  the  Priest  of  Nemi,  who  gained  his 
office  by  putting  his  predecessor  to  death.  In  place  of  this 
ancient  assassin,  the  author  has  imagined  an  enlightened 

"See  preface. 

350 


PHILOSOPHIC  DRAMAS 

priest,  who  discards  antiquated  traditions  and  practices,  and 
devotes  himself  to  the  amelioration  of  humanity,  to  the 
service  of  reason,  and  to  the  worship  of  the  infinite.  All  are 
opposed  to  him  except  two  lovers,  who  have  open  hearts, 
and  Liberalis,  head  of  the  republic,  who  has  an  open  mind ; 
but  the  lovers  are  without  influence  and  Liberalis  is  com- 
pelled to  yield  to  the  mob,  Antistius  has  gained  the  Temple 
without  slaying  his  predecessor,  and  the  people  demand  for 
the  office  a  vile  murderer;  he  has  abolished  sacrifices,  and 
the  people  demand  the  immolation  of  human  victims;  he 
has  substituted  reason,  justice  and  real  worship  for  out- 
worn superstitions,  corrupt  practices  and  senseless  rites, 
and  the  people  demand  the  customs  of  their  fathers.  On  his 
death,  his  murderer  succeeds  him  for  a  moment  amid  gen- 
eral rejoicing,  and  when  he  too  falls,  we  are  left  to  infer  that 
his  fellow  brigand,  Ladro,  is  to  gain  the  appointment  through 
subserviency  to  the  leader  of  the  aristocrats,  though  Ganeo, 
a  despicable  assistant  to  Antistius,  who  has  lost  all  faith 
and  virtue  as  a  result  of  the  too  exalted  teachings  of  his 
noble  master,  would  be  a  fitter  candidate  for  head  of  the 
temple.  This  overthrow,  together  with  an  insane  declara- 
tion of  war  by  Alba  Longa  against  Rome,  constitutes  the 
entire  plot.  In  their  acts  of  folly  the  populace,  led  by  a 
demagogue,  a  fanatic  and  a  self-seeking  nobleman,  force 
their  chief,  Liberalis,  to  proceed  against  his  better  judg- 
ment. The  application  to  modern  conditions  is  sufficiently 
obvious.  Although  Renan  wished  to  indicate  that  progress 
is  ultimately  triumphant,  he  has  not  been  very  fortunate 
in  producing  this  impression.  The  success  of  evil,  foolish 
and  reactionary  forces  is  emphasized  so  strongly  that  the 
reader  is  apt  to  overlook  the  dim  indications  of  the  work- 
ings of  the  eternal  law  of  evolution.  These  indications  are 
embodied  in  the  prophecies  of  the  Sibyl,  who  foresees  both 
the  future  power  of  Rome  and,  though  darkly,  the  coming 
of  Christ.     The  piece  is  fitly  terminated  by  the  words  of 

351 


ERNEST  RENAN 

Jeremiah  (li.  58) :  "Thus  the  peoples  shall  labor  for  vanity, 
And  the  nations  for  the  jBre." 

The  Abbess  of  Jouarre,  in  spite  of  its  stilted  speeches,  is 
more  dramatic  both  in  situations  and  in  character  contrasts 
than  the  preceding  pieces.  Indeed,  the  first  three  acts, 
translated  into  Italian,  were  actually  performed  t^ith  suc- 
cess by  Eleanora  Duse,  to  whom  the  title  role  appealed. 
Local  color,  scrupulously  avoided  in  the  other  philosophical 
dramas,  is  here  profusely  employed.  The  action,  however, 
is  extremely  simple.  During  the  Terror,  the  Abbess  of 
Jouarre,  Julie  de  Saint-Florent  and  the  Marquis  D'Arcy, 
both  condemned  by  the  revolutionary  tribunal  to  die  the 
next  morning,  meet  in  the  du  Plessis  prison.  The  two  had 
loved  one  another,  but,  though  to  a  large  extent  freethinkers, 
they  had  been  kept  apart  by  respect  for  her  position  and 
for  the  educational  task  she  had  set  herself.  At  night  he 
enters  her  cell  and  she  yields  to  his  passion.  On  the  fol- 
lowing morning,  instead  of  accompanying  him  to  the  scaf- 
fold, as  she  expected  and  ardently  desired,  she  is  reprieved, 
and  he  goes  to  his  death  alone.  After  a  frustrated  attempt 
at  suicide,  she  accepts  a  life  of  misery  for  the  sake  of  her 
child.  Some  years  later,  through  the  persuasion  of  her 
brother,  she  consents  to  wed  La  Fresnais,  a  general  of  the 
republic  and  the  man  who  had  secured  her  reprieve,  and 
they  determine  to  devote  themselves  to  the  regeneration  of 
France.  This  is  the  piece  that  Matthew  Arnold  regarded 
as  pertaining  to  the  worship  of  "the  great  goddess  Lu- 
bricity." Such  was  certainly  not  Renan's  intention,  and 
he  defended  himself  against  the  charge  by  prefixing  to  the 
twenty-first  edition  a  pretended  translation  of  a  passage 
from  an  ancient  biography  of  Plato,  in  which  the  philoso- 
pher justifies  the  writing  of  Phadrus.  It  is  needless  to  say 
that  Renan  does  not  emphasize  the  physical  aspects  of  pas- 
sion. Lubricity  implies  an  excessive  preoccupation  with 
the  reproductive  act  as  a  sensual  pleasure.    Renan,  on  the 

352 


PHILOSOPHIC  DRAMAS 

contrary,  treats  the  act  as  sacred,  and  motherhood  as  an 
expression  of  divine  law.  The  sexual  tendency  is  a  fact  of 
nature.  For  the  ordinary  course  of  human  society  safe- 
guards are  necessary,  conventions  and  rites  indispensable. 
The  relations  of  D'Arcy  and  Julie  are  exceptional,  for  the 
imminence  of  certain  death  dissolves  earthly  obligations  and 
sanctifies  their  union.  It  is  with  a  philosophical  discourse 
that  D'Arcy  overcomes  Julie's  scruples,  and  it  is  with  a 
philosophical  discourse  that  her  brother,  after  her  hard 
period  of  expiation,  induces  her  to  accept  La  Fresnais  as 
her  husband.  The  theory,  expressed  in  the  preface,  that  the 
whole  world,  if  assured  of  immediate  extinction,  would  give 
itself  up  to  unrestrained  license,  is  assuredly  not  a  doctrine 
of  human  nature,  but  one  of  Renan's  absolutely  stated 
partial  views,  for  which  the  reader  must  supply  the  quali- 
fications. If  Renan  had  not  been  the  author  of  the 
Origins  of  Christmnity,  it  is  doubtful  whether  any  one 
would  have  thought  of  lubricity  in  connection  with  this 
drama.  Truly,  the  work  contains  about  as  much  of  this 
quality  as  the  virtuous  Richardson 's  Pamela. 

Since  Renan's  philosophy  consists  of  pictures  presenting 
various  phases  of  existence,  rather  than  of  abstract  deduc- 
tions, the  dramatic  form  offered  a  very  favorable  vehicle 
for  his  ideas.  The  reader  acquainted  with  his  earlier  works 
constantly  comes  upon  familiar  phrases  in  the  mouths  of 
the  most  diverse  personages.  Prospero  and  the  Priest  of 
Nemi  think  almost  entirely  in  the  author's  mode,  but  others, 
even  minor  characters,  are  often  his  disciples,  either  in  all 
they  say,  or  in  scattered  passages,  sometimes  at  somewhat 
inopportune  moments.  "When  not  his  disciples,  they  talk, 
not  as  such  persons  would  naturaUy  talk  under  the  given 
circumstances,  but  as  they  might  express  themselves  if  they 
were  thoroughly  transparent  and  logical.  Imagine  one  of 
the  populace  saying  at  a  time  of  revolutionary  excitement, 
"Legitimacy  is  the  pole  of  religion.     Merit  doesn't  count. 

353 


ERNEST  RENAN 

Externals  are  everything."  The  phrase,  it  is  obvious,  pre- 
sents the  logic  of  the  situation,  the  interpretation  of  Renan, 
the  crystallization  of  vague  and  confused  mass  opinion  into 
definite  formulas.  Thus  Renan  can  invent  a  situation — a 
revolution,  a  declaration  of  war,  a  reactionary  environment 
for  a  progressive  scientist  or  for  a  religious  reformer — and 
set  before  us  representatives  of  all  shades  of  opinion  in 
such  characteristic  postures  as  show  his  ideas  of  how  things 
work  out  in  actual  practice.  His  own  experiences  of  '48, 
of  the  Empire,  both  repressive  and  liberal,  of  the  Franco- 
Prussian  war  and  the  Commune,  are  here  bodied  forth  in 
pictures  of  varying  aspects  of  humanity  and  of  the  politi- 
cal and  religious  motives  of  both  crowds  and  individuals. 
Benan  is  nowhere  more  entire  than  in  this  collection. 

VI 

Meanwhile  two  volumes  of  miscellanies  had  been  added  to 
his  great  accumulation:  New  Studies  in  Religious  History 
(1884)  and  Addresses  and  Lectures  (1887),  most  of  the 
articles  in  which  have  already  been  considered.  The  open- 
ing piece  in  the  Nem  Studies,  however,  deserves  special 
notice  on  account  of  some  enigmatical  words  in  the  preface. 
It  was  composed,  Renan  says,  "under  circumstances  that  I 
tell  my  friends  when  I  wish  to  make  them  smile,  and  which 
I  remember  with  pleasure  because  they  rendered  me  for  a 
moment  the  collaborator  of  Taine,  Max  MuUer  and  Emer- 
son." The  amusing  feature  was,  to  use  a  term  of  the 
theater,  that  Renan  came  to  be  "  circussed. ' '  Wallace  Wood 
was  what  Swift  would  call  a  "projector,"  and  he  managed 
to  involve  a  considerable  number  of  distinguished  men  in 
his  absurd  and  bombastic  schemes.  One  of  his  projects  was 
"The  Iconographic  Museum,  Liberal  Education  through 
Eye  and  Hand,"  "the  bride  of  the  library,"  consisting  of 
eeven  Hall$  of  History  labeled  with  the  names  of  ^eat  men, 

954 


LAST  YEARS 

the  prospectus  of  whieli  ends  with  the  following:  "Icono- 
graphie  IMuseums  will  be  furnished  at  a  certain  price  and 
set  up  in  any  town  or  college.  Special  terms  for  S.  Africa 
and  Australia."  The  particular  undertaking  to  which 
Renan  alludes  was  The  Hundred  Greatest  Men,  Portrait 
Collection,  with  "an  international  corps  of  writers,"  being 
four  volumes  devoted  to  Poetry,  Art,  Religion,  and  Philoso- 
phy. Renan 's  introduction  was  to  Volume  III  and  Taine  's  to 
Volume  IV.®^  This  work  is  extolled  as  "a  Universal  His- 
tory, a  complete  Encyclopedia,  an  Entire  System  of  Educa- 
tion, a  Gallery  of  Fine  Arts,"  and  "the  publishers  confi- 
dently believe  that  they  are  issuing  the  important  work  of 
the  century.""  Even  without  knowing  any  of  Renan 's 
personal  experiences  with  Mr.  Wood,  we  can  gather  enough 
from  the  preceding  manifestos  to  understand  his  amusement 
at  being  caught  with  his  eminent  friends  in  this  net  of  un- 
conscious charlatanism. 

Such  an  experience  was  not  calculated  to  diminish  Renan 's 
repugnance  to  what  he  called  Americanism,  the  greedy,  push- 
ing, self -advertising  tendencies  in  daily  life  and  in  politics. 
In  the  eighties  and  nineties  the  United  States,  as  was  natural 
enough,  got  the  credit  for  all  the  crudeness  of  the  new  dem- 
ocratic society.**  The  apparent  instability  of  the  French 
Republic,  moreover,  gave  the  political  manifestation  of  these 
tendencies  a  menacing  appearance.  The  correspondence 
with  Berthelot  is  full  of  gloomy  forebodings  occasioned  by 
the  violence  of  the  demagogues  and  the  absence  of  modera- 
tion in  the  most  respected  leaders.  In  the  seventies  Gam- 
Tor  Taine 's  essay,  see  Bebats,  February  11,  1880. 
"  "Wood,  though  an  Englishman,  ended  his  career  as  a  professor  of 
art  at  New  York  University.  A  number  of  his  curious  books  are  to 
be  found  in  our  libraries.  The  above  quotations  are  made  from  adver- 
tisements published  with  his  ' '  Catalogue  of  the  Wallace  Wood  Portrait 
and  Culture  Gallery,  for  the  liberal  and  art  education  of  men  and 
■women. ' ' 

"The  letters  of  M&rim6e,  Doudan  and  others  are  full  of  the  same 
complaints. 

355 


ERNEST  RENAN 

betta's  lack  of  restraint  was  disquieting,  in  the  eighties 
came  Boulangism,  and  this  was  followed  by  extensive  an- 
archist bombing  activities.  As  life  went  on  pleasantly 
enough  in  spite  of  politics,  cwrpe  diem  came  to  be  the  maxim 
intermingled  with  the  political  plaints. 

Life  was,  indeed,  pleasant  to  Renan,  and  he  often  enough 
publicly  expresses  his  gratitude.  His  family  life,  sweetened 
by  a  devoted  wife  and  daughter  and  freshened  by  his  sport- 
ive grandchildren — ^Noemi  had  been  married  in  1883,  Ary 
the  next  year — ^was  to  him  almost  a  proof  of  predestina- 
tion. In  society  he  was  a  great  favorite.  "Uncouth  in 
frame  and  gait,  as  some  gnomelike  Breton  saint,  unworldly 
as  the  village  cure  he  looked  like,  Renan  became  the  ar- 
biter of  the  more  intellectual  elegancies  of  Paris.  Fair 
ladies  slept  happy  when  they  had  exhibited  him  in  their 
salons;  bonnets  from  Virot  drooped  a  trifle  disconcerted  at 
the  uncompromising  scholarship  of  his  lectures  at  the  Col- 
lege de  France;  latter-day  Magdalenes  consulted  him  as  to 
the  state  of  their  conscience,  and  music  hall  singers  asked 
his  opinion  of  their  songs. ' '  ®^  Every  week  he  received  at 
the  College  de  France.  **He  used  to  sit  in  his  armchair, 
talking  as  no  one  else  could  talk,  giving  equally  kind  wel- 
come to  all  comers,  surrounded  by  his  family,  whom  he 
loved  intensely,  and  by  whom  he  was  adored  in  return,"^" 
He  was  very  fond  of  dining  out,  appreciating  good  food 
and  drink,  as  well  as  good  company.  He  had  been  one  of 
the  group  that  dined  every  fortnight  with  Thiers  after  that 
statesman's  retirement,  and  though  the  Magny  dinners, 
grown  unwieldy  and  held  at  Brebant's,  seem  to  have  lost 
their  attraction,  he  had  innumerable  occasions  for  meeting 
brilliant  people  around  both  public  and  private  tables. 
**M.  Renan  talked  marvelously  well,  and  he  loved  talking. 
He  had  little  of  the  ready  give-and-take  which  is  the  most 

••Mme.  Darmesteter,  p.  242. 
"Simpson,  Many  Memories,  p.  319. 

356 


LAST  YEARS 

usual  form  of  wit,  yet  he  had  a  colloquial  magic  of  his  own. 
His  conversation  was  an  attentive  silence,  interrupted  by 
long  pauses  of  solitary  meditation,  and  by  outbursts  of 
radiant  monologue."  " 

There  was  nothing  in  his  external  appearance  [says  Grabriel 
Monod"]  which  at  first  view  seemed  calculated  to  charm.  Small 
of  stature,  with  an  enormous  head  set  in  broad  shoulders,  af- 
flicted early  with  excessive  obesity  that  made  his  walking  heavy 
and  was  the  cause  of  the  illness  that  carried  him  off,  he  seemed 
homely  to  those  who  saw  him  only  in  passing.  But  the  instant 
he  spoke,  this  impression  vanished.  You  were  struck  with  the 
power  and  breadth  of  his  forehead;  his  eyes  sparkled  with  life 
and  wit,  and  they  had  besides  a  caressing  sweetness.  His  smile 
above  all  spoke  all  his  kindliness.  His  manners,  in  which  there 
had  been  preserved  something  of  the  paternal  affability  of  the 
priest,  together  with  the  gestures  of  benediction  of  his  plump 
hands  and  the  approving  movement  of  his  head,  possessed  an  ur- 
banity that  was  never  belied  and  in  which  was  felt  the  native 
nobility  of  his  character  and  his  race.  But  it  is  impossible  to 
describe  the  charm  of  his  talk.  Always  simple,  almost  n^ligent, 
but  always  incisive  and  original,  it  penetrated  and  enveloped  at 
the  same  time.  His  prodigious  memory  permitted  him  to  bring  to 
all  subjects  new  facts,  original  ideas;  and  at  the  same  time,  his 
rich  imagination  mingled  in  his  conversation,  with  turns  that 
were  often  paradoxical,  flights  of  poetry,  unexpected  comparisons, 
sometimes  even  prophetic  views  of  the  future.  He  was  an  incom- 
parable story-teller.  The  Breton  legends  in  his  mouth  acquired 
an  exquisite  savor.  No  talker,  except  Michelet,  has  been  able 
so  to  unite  poetry  and  wit.  He  did  not  like  discussions,  and  the 
facility  with  which  he  assented  to  the  most  contradictory  asser- 
tions has  often  been  the  subject  of  jest.  But  this  complaisance 
toward  the  ideas  of  others,  which  had  its  source  in  a  politeness 
at  times  a  trifle  disdainful,  did  not  hinder  him  from  firmly  main- 
taining his  opinion  whenever  it  was  a  really  serious  question. 
He  could  be  firm  in  defense  of  what  he  believed  just. 


"Mme.  Darmesteter,  p.  250.     The  recollectionB  in  this  book  give 
a  charming  picture  of  Kenan  'a  last  days. 
"Eenan,  Taine,  Michelet,  pp.  35,  36. 

357 


ERNEST  RENAN 

Badly  housed  in  the  College  de  France/'  he  still  had 
space  for  his  books  and  could  have  the  relief  of  not  fearing 
another  moving  day.  It  might  have  been  anticipated  that 
he  would  have  made  an  indifferent  executive,  but  abundant 
testimony  shows  that  his  administrative  abilities  were  un- 
usual. He  was  perfectly  familiar  with  every  detail,  and 
he  devoted  to  practical  matters  concerning  the  College  an 
attention  he  never  deigned  to  bestow  on  his  own  affairs.''* 
Whatever  task  Renan  loved,  he  accomplished  with  marked 
eflBciency,  and  his  affection  for  the  College  de  France  equaled 
that  which  he  gave  to  the  Societe  Asiatique  and  the  Corpus. 
Besides  acting  as  Administrator,  he  was  also  the  representa- 
tive of  the  College,  with  Berthelot,  on  the  Conseil  Superieur 
de  I 'Instruction  Publique,^®  where  the  two  friends  gave  much 
attention  to  the  development  of  the  system  of  French  uni- 
versities, though  naturally  unable  to  accomplish  all  they  de- 
sired. 

VII 

Renan  as  a  public  man,  however,  is  not  nearly  so  attractive 
as  the  great  scholar  in  his  study.  Here  Philippe  Berger 
used  to  come  to  work  with  him  on  the  Corpus.  Arriving  by 
appointment  in  the  morning,  he  would  find  that  Renan  was 
still  in  bed.  Soon  hurried  steps  are  heard  coming  down  the 
hall;  then  apologies,  the  breakfast  cup  of  chocolate  is 
brought,  and  work  is  begun,  gravely  superintended  by  Coco, 
the  parrot.     A  meow  at  the  door,  and  Minet,  the  Angora 

"  Mme.  Darmesteter  gives  a  picture  of  the  meager  study  facing  north, 
the  narrow  bedrooms,  the  salon  adorned  with  Ary  Scheffer's  pictures, 
and  quotes  a  paper  found  in  Kenan's  desk:  "I  have  known  the 
grip  of  poverty,  but  never  have  I  been  so  badly  housed  as  in  the 
CoUSge  de  France. '  *  He  never,  however,  thought  of  asking  for  repairs. 
(Pp.  242,  243.)  So  far  as  we  have  accounts  of  Kenan's  other  dwelling's, 
he  seems  always  to  have  sought  a  study  that  commanded  a  view  of 
trees. 

"Gaston  Paris,  Penseurs  et  Poites. 

"Elected  May  1,  1884. 

358 


LAST  YEARS 

cat,  has  to  be  admitted,  jumps  on  the  master's  shoulders, 
walks  over  the  papers,  scratches  the  backs  of  some  Trans- 
actions on  the  bottom  shelf  of  the  bookcase,  and  then  calls 
to  be  let  out.  Renan,  we  are  told,  was  a  night  worker.  In 
the  mornings  his  mind  slumbered,  and  only  as  evening  ap- 
proached did  he  gain  full  possession  of  himself.  Then  he 
often  went  on  till  long  after  midnight.^^  It  is  almost  need- 
less to  say  that  the  clearest  order  and  method  were  charac- 
teristics of  his  work.  An  ingenious  system  of  marginal  ref- 
erences permitted  infinite  correction  and  retained  every 
thought  in  its  proper  place. 

In  his  course  at  the  College  de  France  Renan  now  de- 
parted from  his  earlier  practice,  and  devoted  one  of  the  two 
hours  to  preparing  the  ground  for  his  History  of  the  People 
of  Israel.  As  this  course  made  a  popular  appeal  and  as  he 
had  become  one  of  the  curiosities  of  Paris,  his  little  room 
was  often  thronged  with  the  curious.  The  Saturday  lecture 
on  the  Pentateuch  became  too  often  a  gathering  place  for 
fashionable  ladies.  The  professor 's  free  and  colloquial  man- 
ner were  vividly  painted  by  Jules  Lemaitre  ^^  and  notes  of 
his  course  were  presented  to  the  public  in  the  Debats?^ 
"In  his  Saturday  course,"  says  this  reporter,  "M.  Renan 
pursues  the  study  of  the  sources  of  old  Hebrew  literature. 
He  brings  forth  and  discusses  before  a  public  ever  more 
and  more  avid  to  hear  him,  the  materials  of  the  History  of 
the  People  of  Israel,  allowing  his  hearers  to  see  day  by  day 
the  scientific  elaboration,  all  trace  of  which  is  effaced  the 
moment  the  book  appears."^* 

No  more  riotous  demonstrations  or  attempts  at  suppres- 

^•Berger,  "Eenan  intime,"  La  Bevue,  November  15,  1903,  and  also 
in  Debats,  October  7,  1892. 

"  Les  Contemporains,  vol.  i,  p.  195  et  seq. 

"August  17  and  23,  1887,  "Notes  d'un  auditeur  du  coura  de  M. 
Benan. ' ' 

"  In  Penseurs  et  PoBtes,  p.  333  et  seq.,  Gaston  Paris  gives  a  luminoua 
picture  of  these  courses,  Uieir  exactness  and  their  inspiration. 

359 


ERNEST  RENAN 

sion.  No  universal  howl  of  objurgation  and  anathema  at 
the  appearance  of  his  books.  The  progress  in  tolerance  and 
moderation  noted  in  the  preface  to  New  Studies  was  actual 
and  permanent,  and  Renan  himself  had  been  the  principal 
factor  in  accomplishing  this  result.  "We  may  see  strong 
religious  reactions,"  he  said;  "we  shall  not  see  a  return  to 
real  fanaticism." 

Little  annoyed  by  controversy,  his  serenity  was  sometimes 
troubled  by  personalities.  He  objected  to  some  pretended 
conversations  published  by  Maurice  Barres  in  the  Voltaire 
for  May,  1886 ;  ^°  but  his  chief  irritation  was  excited  by 
the  betrayal  of  confidence  in  the  Goncourt  Jcninwl.  The 
Dehats  printed  (December  6,  1890)  from  the  I-annionnais, 
a  letter  of  Renan  to  his  cousin  M.  Morand,  in  wnich  he  ex- 
presses his  indignation  over  Goncourt 's  violation  of  pro- 
priety and  proclaims  the  reported  conversations  "complete 
transformations  of  the  truth."  "When  I  wish  to  express 
myself,"  he  continued,  "I  do  it  in  the  Bevue  des  Deux  Mon- 
des,  in  the  Journal  des  Dehats,  or  in  my  books.  ...  I  do 
not  recognize  in  any  other  place  the  authentic  expression 
of  my  thought."  Newspaper  reporters,  catching  Renan  off 
his  guard,  instigated  the  protagonist  to  recriminations  for 
the  sake  of  interesting  copy.^^  The  fundamental  truth  is 
probably  to  be  found  in  a  letter  of  Taine,  written  before  this 
particular  controversy  arose,  and  dealing  with  Goncourt 's 
second  volume  i®^ 

Once  or  twice  I  am  made  to  say  the  opposite  of  what  I  have 
thought  or  do  think,  but  this  is  done  with  no  ill  intent ;  the  author, 
for  want  of  suflGieient  culture,  has  not  understood  what  was  said 
in  his  presence.  I  beg  you  to  believe  that,  if  the  Magny  Dinner 
had  been  such  as  it  is  here  represented,  I  should  not  have  at- 

*°  Euit  Jours  ches  M.  Benan,  a  bit  of  pretentious  crudeness  recently 
republished. 

"See  preface  to  Goncourt 's  fifth  volume,  and  list  of  papers  in 
Strauss,  Politique,  p.  197,  note  1. 

"To  Georges  Patinot,  October  25,  1887. 

360 


LAST  YEARS 

tended  it  a  third  time;  fortunately,  howeyer,  besides  the  authors 
of  this  Journal,  there  were  present  Sainte-Beuve,  Renan,  Robin, 
Berthelot,  Nefftzer,  Scherer,  Flaubert,  and  sometimes  George  Sand, 
people  well  versed  in  physical  or  natural  or  philological  sci- 
ences, in  philosophy  or  theology,  acquainted  with  foreign  lan- 
guages and  literatures,  classical  antiquity,  the  Orient  and  his- 
tory; these  are  the  subjects  we  talked  about  and  the  conversation 
was  worth  listening  to.  Unfortunately  it  was  above  the  heads 
of  the  two  stenographers;  their  horizon  was  limited  to  Gavami, 
the  minor  artists  of  the  eighteenth  century  and  Japanese  curios; 
beyond  this  limited  sphere  they  found  nothing,  and  even  within 
this  circle  everything  was  filled  up  by  their  own  egotism.** 

The  Magny  meetings  were,  after  all,  Sainte-Beuve  din- 
ners. To  Flaubert  in  1874,  Renan  wrote:  "Do  you  recol- 
lect those  dinners  with  that  great  friend,  whose  loss  leaves 
in  me  the  same  literary  void  as  though  he  had  dragged  half 
the  public  into  the  tomb  with  him. ' '  ^*  Over  Goncourt  's 
treatment  of  the  great  critic,  Taine  expresses  indignation; 
he  feels  that  the  Princess  Matilde  ought  to  turn  the  scandal- 
monger out  of  her  house:  "Truly  literary  manners  are 
getting  dirty." 

Such  irritations  were,  however,  but  passing  clouds  of 
small  magnitude.  The  enemy  Renan  now  had  always  with 
him  was  physical  pain.  Morally  and  intellectually  he  had 
fitted  himself  admirably  into  the  conditions  of  the  universe, 
but  health  he  had  neglected.  The  days  free  from  suffering 
were  marked  days.  Rheumatism,  intercostal  neuralgia,  and 
a  weak  heart  were  his  chief  afflictions,  and  walking  was  dif- 
ficult. He  sought  relief  in  change  of  climate  and  in  mineral 
baths,  tut  his  confirmed  sedentary  habits  made  such  alle- 
viations merely  temporary.     "It  is  exercise  above  all  that 

■*  Vie  et  correspondance,  vol.  iv,  256-258.  After  the  publication  of 
the  first  volume,  Taine  had  requested  Goncourt  to  omit  all  reference 
to  him  thereafter.  Letter  of  October  22,  1887.  After  the  second 
volume,  he  resolves  never  to  accept  any  invitation  if  Goncourt  is  to 
be  present. 

**Feuilles  dStacMes,  p.  350. 

361 


ERNEST  RENAN 

does  me  good,"  he  wrote  Berthelot  from  Saint-Raphael 
(March  21,  1884),  "or  rather  the  interdiction  I  impose  on 
myself  of  sitting  all  day  long  at  my  desk."  But  as  soon  as 
he  was  back  in  Paris,  the  interdiction  was  raised,  and,  un- 
fortunately for  him,  exercise  of  the  mind  could  not  answer 
for  exercise  of  the  body.  The  Easter  holidays  were  com- 
monly, though  not  invariably,  spent  in  the  South  of 
France,®*  and  he  was  always  happy  if  he  could  combine 
some  investigation  with  his  search  for  health,  as  when,  in 
1878,  he  visited  the  scenes  of  the  persecutions  of  Lyons  un- 
der the  guidance  of  local  antiquaries,  ®^  and  fixed  some  vivid 
pictures  for  his  Marcus  Aurelius.  To  Renan  eveiy  moment 
stolen  from  intellectual  pursuits  was  a  moment  wasted. 

To  this  feeling  on  his  part  we  owe  those  diversions,  which 
are  so  often  masterpieces.  The  last  of  these  belongs  to  the 
summer  of  1888.  Looking  over  the  manuscript  of  The  Future 
of  Science  with  a  view  to  publication,  Renan  was  led  quite 
in  the  manner  of  pious  Catholics  in  a  retreat,  to  review  his 
opinions  and  strike  a  philosophical  balance,  "between 
proofs,"  of  this  Hebrew  History,  as  he  wrote  Berthelot 
(August  9),  or  "like  a  parenthesis,"  as  he  called  it  the  next 
year  (July  7,  1889).  His  friend  was  asked  to  look  over  the 
proof  sheets  to  see  that  the  technical  scientific  statements 
were  not  "too  far  behind  the  times."  The  article,  entitled 
"Examination  of  Philosophic  Conscience,"  appeared  in  the 
Bevue  des  deux  Mondes  for  August  15,  1889.^^ 

The  opening  passage  contains  the  clearest  statement 
Renan  ever  made  of  his  philosophical  attitude,  a  passive 
observation  of  objective  truth,  distorting  it  as  little  as  pos- 

"In  1886,  for  example,  the  Kenans  were  in  Switzerland;  Bitter  and 
Berthelot,   same   date,   April   24,    1886. 

'"  Melanges  religieux  et  historiques,  p.  307. 

"With  the  exception  of  the  brief  notice  of  the  Queen  of  Holland, 
this  was  the  only  independent  essay  of  Kenan's  which  appeared  in 
this  periodical  after  1874.  All  his  other  articles  were  chapters  from 
bis  books. 

362 


LAST  YEARS 

fiible  with  rigid  formulas.  "The  first  duty  of  a  sincere 
man,"  he  says,  "is  to  exercise  no  influence  upon  his  own 
opinions,  but  to  allow  reality  to  be  reflected  within  him  as 
in  the  camera  obscura  of  the  photographer,  and  to  be  a  mere 
spectator  of  the  inward  conflicts  of  ideas  in  the  depths  of 
his  conscioiLsness. ' '  *^  The  fundamental  results  of  this  con- 
flict in  Kenan's  consciousness  differ  little  from  those  hither- 
to presented — There  is  no  intervention  of  a  will  superior 
to  man's;  the  law  of  the  universe  is  a  hecoming  through  in- 
ternal development ;  our  ideas  of  space  and  time  are  wholly 
relative,  one  infinity  being  zero  to  another  infinity ;  absolute 
certitude  is  unattainable,  but  the  highest  probability  is 
practically  sufficient;  God  and  the  immortality  of  the  soul 
are  possible  at  the  limits  of  the  infinite,  and  the  intervening 
sleep  would  seem  but  a  moment ;  mystery  surrounds  us,  but 
we  hear  plainly  a  voice  from  the  other  world,  the  voice  that 
speaks  in  the  four  great  follies  of  man — follies  because  de- 
nials of  calculating  egotism — love,  religion,  poetry  and  vir- 
tue; we  work  by  instinct  for  the  ends  of  the  universe,  the 
development  of  its  general  consciousness,  hoping  that  God  is 
good.  "The  world,  now  governed  by  a  blind  or  impotent 
consciousness,  may  some  day  be  governed  by  a  consciousness 
more  reflective.  There  will  be  reparation  then  for  every 
injustice,  and  every  tear  will  be  dried." 

Sometimes,  in  his  later  days,  Renan  adopted  the  practice 
of  saying  things  in  a  striking  way,  so  as  to  startle  readers 
into  attention.  Of  this  practice  there  is  an  unfortunate  ex- 
ample here.  After  picturing  what  a  consciousness  of  the 
infinitely  little  might  think  if  suddenly  disturbed  by  man, 
he  exclaims:  "All  things  are  possible,  even  God."  If  he 
had  said  "an  anthropological  God,"  the  remark  would  not 
have  been  drawn  out  of  its  context  and  paraded  as  an  im- 
pious Renanism. 

''Feuiiles  detachees,  p.  401. 

363 


ERNEST  RENAN 

On  the  other  hand,  a  long  passage  on  the  saeredness  of 
love  and  of  the  reproductive  impulse,  as  displayed  in  flower 
and  animal,  and  ennobled  and  ennobling  in  man,  is  a  com- 
plete answer  to  frivolous  scoffers  and  seekers  for  indecency, 
who  so  frequently  found  their  ammunition  in  Renan's  in- 
genuous absorption  in  his  idea.  Through  a  consideration 
of  love  is  developed  the  conception  of  the  attachment  of 
each  detail  of  existence  to  the  totality  of  the  vast  move- 
ments of  the  universe.®'' 

The  guileless  way  in  which  Renan  saw  only  his  own  idea, 
and  not  at  all  the  effect  it  would  produce  on  his  hearers,  is 
well  illustrated  by  an  episode  recorded  by  Goncourt.  At 
the  Magny  dinner,  October  22,  1866,  the  talk  turned  to  God, 
and  each  attempted  to  give  voice  to  his  concept.  Renan,  after 
a  long  pause  and  amidst  a  silence  of  breathless  expectancy, 
announced  that  to  him  God  resembled  an  oyster  with  its 
vegetative  existence.  This  portentous  comparison  was 
greeted  by  an  enormous  roar  of  laughter  from  the  whole 
table,  in  which  Renan,  after  a  moment  of  naive  stupefaction, 
politely  joined.^" 

-  In  the  "Examination  of  Philosophic  Conscience,"  the 
pearl  oyster  is  again  his  image  of  the  universe.  A  disease 
of  this  little  living  cosmos  forms  a  secretion  of  ideal  beauty, 
a  precious  thing  sought  by  men.  "The  general  life  of  the 
universe  is,  like  that  of  the  oyster,  vague,  obscure,  singu- 
larly hampered  and  consequently  sluggish.  Suffering  cre- 
ates mind,  intellectual  and  moral  movement.  Disease  of  the 
world,  if  you  choose,  but  really  pearl  of  the  world,  mind  is 
the  end,  the  final  cause,  the  last  and  certainly  the  most  bril- 
liant resultant  of  the  universe  that  we  live  in.  It  is  highly 
probably  that  if  there  come  ulterior  resultants,  they  will  be 
of  an  infinitely  higher  order."  This  tone,  with  which  the 
little  piece  ends,  may  almost  be  called  a  note  of  faith. 

"Ibid.,  pp.  421-424. 
'^Journal,  vol.  iii,  p.  78. 

364 


LAST  YEARS 

The  ideas  here  expressed  are  essentially  the  same  as  those 
in  The  Future  of  Science,  which  Renan  finally  published  in 
March,  1890.  He  had  promised  the  book  to  the  public  twice 
before  in  notes  to  the  prefaces  of  the  Philosophic  Dialogues 
(1876)  and  of  Miscellanies  of  History  and  Travel  (1878). 
He  had  expected,  Grant  Duff  tells  us,  that  the  revision  would 
take  very  little  time,  for  he  had  determined  to  change  noth- 
ing, only  to  correct  proofs,  amend  inadvertencies,  and  here 
and  there  improve  the  style,  but  most  of  his  leisure  during 
the  winter  was  given  to  it.  The  time  must  have  been  spent 
on  the  effort,  afterwards  relinquished,  to  cut  out  passages 
repeated  in  later  works,®^  for  obviously,  as  well  as  accord- 
ing to  Renan 's  own  statement,  the  book  was  published 
practically  as  written.  It  is  one  of  the  essential  biographi- 
cal documents. 

VIII 

Really  all  the  efforts  of  the  last  five  years  were  required 
for  the  completion  of  the  principal  life  works.  By  the  time 
the  Origins  was  off  the  press,  Renan  was  already  at  work 
on  his  History  of  the  People  of  Israel.  He  wished  to  revisit 
Lebanon  and  Jerusalem,  so  as  to  sketch  the  book  on  the 
spot,^^  but  in  this  hope  he  was  disappointed.  The  task  was 
accomplished  entirely  in  his  study.  By  September,  1885,  it 
is  well  advanced,  the  essential  parts  being  almost  done. 
"The  two  months  I  shall  have  in  Paris  before  the  opening 
of  my  course  will,  I  hope,  suffice  to  put  the  whole  work  on 
its  feet;  although  a  year  will  be  needed  to  bring  it  all  to 
an  end."®'  The  single  volume  that  seems  to  be  indicated 
here  was  lengthened  out  to  five.  In  the  preface  to  volume 
one  (1887)  Renan  says  that  after  six  years  of  labor  he  had 
finished  the  story  as  far  as  Esdras ;  the  second  volume  would 

"Preface,  p.  xi. 

•»  To  Berthelot,  September  2,  1881. 

"Ibid.,   September   24,   1885. 

365 


ERNEST  RENAN 

come  out  in  a  year,  the  third  in  two  years,  and,  if  stren^h 
should  be  granted,  he  would  add  a  fourth.  Again,  as  in  the 
case  of  his  Origins,  the  work  grew  in  the  process  of  accom- 
plishment. The  second  volume  was  almost  ready  in  October, 
1888,  after  a  summer's  hard  work.^*  In  1889  the  third  vol- 
ume was  going  well,^^  and  his  fourth  was  to  be  done  the 
next  year  in  December,  though  two  years  will  be  needed  be- 
fore publication,  owing  to  the  care  taken.^^  On  October  24, 
1891,  he  was  able  to  write  at  the  end  of  his  manuscript, 
"End  of  Volume  V  and  last."  But  for  this  conscientious 
scholar,  much  remained  to  be  done.  "I  hope  to  publish  my 
two  volumes  that  complete  the  History  of  Israel,"  he  wrote 
Berthelot,  April  26,  1892.  "I  have  read  part  of  my  proofs 
at  Marlotte,  and  I  am  not  dissatisfied.  A  good  corrector 
could  without  me  publish  all  that ;  although,  indeed,  if  from 
purgatory  I  should  see  this  work  of  correction  done  by  an- 
other, I  believe  I  should  have  a  good  many  moments  of 
impatience. ' ' 

The  first  volume  was  published  October  25,  1887.  It  was 
preceded  by  four  articles  in  the  Bevue  des  deiLx  Mondes,^'' 
in  which  Renan  gathered,  with  preparatory  and  connecting 
matter,  "the  principal  passages  of  the  second  and  third 
volumes  that  deal  with  the  composition  of  the  historical 
books  of  the  Bible.  "^«  On  October  15,  1887,  the  last  five 
chapters  of  Volume  I  appeared  in  the  Bevue,  while  an  ex- 
tract from  the  preface  was  printed  in  the  Dehats  for  Octo- 
ber 24,  the  day  preceding  publication.  Of  Volume  II,  the 
whole  of  Book  III  appeared  in  the  Bevue  for  July  15  and 

•♦/feu?.,  October  3,  1888. 

"  Ihid.,  July  7,  1889. 

«/&id.,  August  1,  1890. 

"March  1  and  15,  and  December  1  and  15,  1886. 

•'  Though  Eenan  tells  us  this  fact  in  his  introduction  to  vol.  i,  these 
have  been  spoken  of  as  independent  articles.  Comparison  shows  that 
they  do  not  differ  at  all  from  the  corresponding  passages  in  the 
completed  work,  except  for  the  additions  noted.  It  is,  however,  a 
great  convenience  to  have  them  in  this  separate  form. 

366 


LAST  YEARS 

Au^st  1,  1888,  while  the  preface  was  given  as  usual  in  the 
Dehats  for  December  11.  The  same  thing  happened  for  the 
remaining  volumes,  the  last  chapter  in  the  Revue  des  deux 
Mondcs  coming  out  January  1,  1894,*^  and  the  three  volumes 
themselves  appearing  October,  1890,  and  April  and  Decem- 
ber, 1893.  Renan  had  really  completed  his  work.  It  was 
only  the  conscientious  last  touches  that  the  final  chapters 
failed  to  receive.*"" 

At  tlie  meeting  of  the  Academy  of  Inscriptions  for  Feb- 
ruary 13,  1891,  Renan  placed  upon  the  table  the  first  fascicle 
of  Volume  II  of  the  Carpus  Inscriptionum  Semiticarum,  in 
this  case,  also  practically  completing  a  piece  of  his  life  work. 
This  child  of  his  own  conception,  planned  a  quarter  of  a  cen- 
tury before,  a  work  he  loved  so  passionately  and  one  that 
seemed  to  him  so  important  for  the  scientific  glory  of  France, 
he  was  happy  to  see  so  far  progressed  that  its  future  was 
assured.*"  "Of  all  that  I  have  done,"  he  wrote  on  a  scrap 
of  paper  found  in  his  desk,  "I  prefer  the  Corpus." 

The  other  completed  task,  and  again  it  was  one  that  he 
had  proposed  and  carried  through  by  his  own  force  of  con- 
viction, was  the  '^Je^\dsh  "Writers  of  the  Fourteenth  Cen- 
tury," for  the  Histoire  litteraire  de  la  France.  The  final 
installment  appeared  in  Volume  XXXI.  On  the  eve  of  his 
departure  for  Rosmapamon  in  1892,  as  he  sat  at  his  table 
with  a  bundle  of  proofs,  he  said  to  Philippe  Berger  with  the 
utmost  satisfaction :  * '  There  is  the  last  sheet  of  my  Rabbis. 
I  imposed  this  task  on  myself;  it  is  finished.     Now  I  shall 

••Of  voL  iii,  book  v,  chapters  i-iv,  appeared  June  15,  and  chap- 
ters v-viii,  July  1,  1890;  vol.  iv,  book  viii,  chapters  x-xii,  March  15, 
1893;  of  voL  v,  book  x,  chapters  v-viii,  January  1,  1894.  Of 
course  for  vols,  iv  and  v  there  were  no  prefaces  to  print  in  the 
DSbats. 

"•Even  after  publication  in  the  Revue,  Benan  still  made  corrections 
in  details  of  style,  a  fact  revealed  by  a  carefnl  comparison  of  the 
two  versions. 

'"The  substance  of  words  quoted  by  Berger  from  a  letter,  "Benan 
intime."    La  Bevue,  1903, 

367 


ERNEST  RENAN 

put  the  last  stroke  on  my  History  of  Israel."  ^^^  It  was  an 
arid  and  ungrateful  undertaking  carried  through  with  abso- 
lute probity  by  sustained  application.  True  to  his  principles 
enunciated  in  early  days,  Renan  did  his  full  share  of  dull  toil 
on  the  foundations  of  philological  science.^"' 

IX 

In  his  last  years  Renan  frequently  expressed  the  thought 
that  he  was  lingering  beyond  the  fifth  act.  Yet  he  liked  to 
live.  Once,  indeed,  he  said  to  Berger  from  his  sickbed,  that 
he  did  not  think  he  could  bear  his  sufferings  if  they  lasted ; 
it  would  be  better  to  die.  But  there  were  periods  of  com- 
parative comfort  and  his  mind  was  often  able  to  dominate 
physical  pain.  Even  as  late  as  1889,  he  could  walk  his  two 
kilometers  a  day  in  the  country,  which  had  been  for  some 
years  the  limit  of  his  summer  exercise.  In  the  winter,  he 
seems  to  have  been  contented  with  the  trip  from  his  apart- 
ment to  the  lecture  room  downstairs.  At  the  November 
Celtic  dinner  of  1890,  after  talking  about  Saint  Yves,  he 
said  whimsically:  "You  really  rejuvenate  me,  and  you 
seem  so  glad  to  have  me  at  your  table  that  I  should  be 
rather  impolite  not  to  be  in  the  world  next  year  to  attend 
a  similar  meeting. ' '  *°*  But  the  next  November  he  had  to 
go  south  for  his  health,  to  Cap-Martin,  near  Mentone.  In 
returning  to  Paris  in  a  draughty  train,  he  had  a  chill  which 
dissipated  all  the  benefits  of  the  sunny  days  he  had  enjoyed. 
When  Berger  called,  instead  of  finding  him  at  his  desk,  he 
saw  him  sitting  exhausted  in  an  armchair  designed  for  him 
by  Ary  Scheffer.  Still  he  managed  to  continue  his  work, 
though  the  Societe  Asiatique  knew  him  no  more.     He  at- 

^"'Debats,  October  7,  1892. 

^••The  magnitude  and  the  irksomeness  of  the  task  will  be  apparent 
to  any  one  turning  the  pages  of  vol.  xxxi;  the  memoir  covers  pp. 
351-789. 

^VSbats,  November  9,  1890. 

368 


LAST  YEARS 

tended  some  meetings  of  the  Academy,  however,*"'  and,  pre- 
siding at  the  Celtic  dinner  at  the  Cafe  Voltaire  on  May  14,  he 
gave  a  charming  causerie  in  which,  after  referring  to  the 
fact  that  he  had  been  suffering  all  winter,  he  expressed  hopes 
that  his  health  would  return  and  that  he  would  preside  again 
next  year.*°^ 

In  May,  1891,  C-almann  Levy  paid  a  visit  to  Renan  at  the 
College  de  France  to  ask  him  for  another  volume  of  recol- 
lections, and,  as  the  composition  of  such  a  volume  would  re- 
quire too  much  time,  he  suggested  a  hook  made  up  of  mis- 
cellaneous articles  and  speeches,  the  result  being  Scattered 
Leaves,  which  was  published  February  17,  1892.*°^  Before 
its  appearance  Levy  had  died,  and  in  his  preface  Renan 
pays  his  friend  a  beautiful  tribute.  For  occupying  himself 
with  things  of  no  importance,  instead  of  eternal  verities, 
he  excuses  himself,  on  the  ground  that  his  serious  work  is 
finished,  though  he  will  need  time  for  correcting  the  proofis. 
The  work  on  the  Rabbis  is  nearly  ended  and  the  Corpiis  is 
in  excellent  hands.  "All  this,"  he  says,  "gives  me  great 
inward  satisfaction,  and  so  I  have  come  to  believe  that, 
after  having  thus  paid  almost  all  my  debts,  I  might  well 
entertain  myself  a  little."  This  attitude  of  indulgent  se- 
renity permeates  the  preface  and,  indeed,  a  good  part  of  the 
volume.  "Where  he  says  to  youth,  "Amuse  yourselves  since 
you  are  only  twenty,  but  also  work,"  the  intemperate 
sophists  accuse  him  of  falling  from  grace  and  pointing  out 
the  paths  of  wickedness.  Let  them  keep  their  fierce  right- 
eousness. More  pleasing  is  the  judgment  of  Charles  Ritter, 
who  compares  the  new  preface  with  the  opening  lecture  of 
1862,  and  finds  in  the  former  a  great  lesson  of  life,  serenity. 
"The  pessimists,"  he  continues,  "say  that  there  is  no  mean 

*'  He  presided  at  a  meeting  March  24  and  voted  on  June  2 ;  see 
Bebats. 
^"•Debats,  May  16. 
"^  Preface  in  Debats,  February  15, 

369 


ERNEST  RENAN 

between  frivolity  and  despair.  .  .  .  But  for  thirty  years, 
you  have  shown  us,  dear  and  venerable  master,  by  word 
and  by  example,  that  there  is  a  path  of  salvation,  work, 
which  on  the  one  hand  calms  and  pacifies,  and  on  the  other, 
gives  us,  in  the  obscurity  of  our  destiny,  its  little  gleam  that 
guides  and  consoles  us. ' '  ^°®  This  Swiss  scholar  was  one  of 
the  truest  of  Renan's  disciples. 

When  Renan  went  to  Rosmapamon  in  July,  he  was  already 
under  the  shadow  of  death.  ' '  To  end  is  nothing, ' '  he  writes 
Berthelot,^°®  "I  have  almost  filled  out  the  framework  of  my 
life,  and,  although  I  still  can  make  good  use  of  a  few  years, 
I  am  ready  to  depart.  ...  I  shall  utilize  the  remnants  of 
life,  if  I  have  any.  At  present  I  am  working  at  the  correc- 
tion of  the  proofs  of  my  fourth  and  fifth  volumes  of  Israel. 
I  should  like  to  go  over  it  all.  .  .  .  The  will  of  God  be  done. 
In  utrumque  paratus."  To  Berger,  he  was  constantly  send- 
ing references  for  verification.  On  August  21,  he  thanks  him 
for  an  inscription  and  expresses  pleasure  at  the  progress  of 
the  Corpus.  He  has  not  walked  a  step,  often  cannot  even 
speak,  is  able  to  work  a  little  at  volume  five,  but  what  a  loss 
of  time!  Every  one  who  saw  him  testified  to  his  patience 
and  fortitude.^^"  In  his  last  letter  to  Berthelot,  he  still  has 
faint  hopes,  though  weak  and  unable  to  take  nourishment. 
"One  would  die  more  tranquilly,  if  one  were  alone;  if  one 
did  not  leave  loved  ones  behind."  He  still  works  a  little. 
The  volume  might  well  be  called,  *  *  Benoni,  filius  doloris  mei. 
Yes,  I  have  passed  sad  days;  they  would  have  been  less 
sad  if  you  had  been  with  me.  My  wife  and  children 
have  shown  me  exceeding  kindness,  and  it  has  consoled 
me." 

On  September  17,  Renan  was  brought  back  to  the  College 


«» Letter,  February  25,   1892. 
^'''July  20;   the  last  letter  in  his  own  hand. 

""For  the  words  of  an  eyewitness,  see  Jean  Psichari,  Sceur  Ansel- 
mine,  pp.   168-175, 

370 


LAST  YEARS 

de  France  to  die.  On  October  2,  the  Dehats  announced  that 
he  had  arrived  from  Rosmapamon  much  fatigued,  but  was 
better  yesterday  afternoon.  His  end  was  peaceful.  His  son, 
Ary,  wrote :  "On  Sunday,  at  daybreak,  when  we  were  all 
standing  around  him,  we  saw  his  breathing  become  feeble, 
then  cease,  without  movement,  without  pain,  like  a  lamp  go- 
ing out."^"  On  October  3,  came  the  announcement  that 
Renan  had  died  Sunday  at  6 :20  a.  m.  from  pulmonary  con- 
gestion complicated  with  heart  disease.  Besides  the  obituary, 
there  was  in  the  Dehats  a  special  article  by  Gaston  Des- 
champs.  On  October  5  appeared  an  article  by  H.  C.  (Henri 
Chantavoine),  "Ernest  Renan  and  the  Dehats,"  in  which 
we  get  a  delightful  picture  of  the  great  talker  sitting  on  a 
sofa  after  a  Dehats  dinner,  cordial,  frank,  serene,  indulgent, 
witty  but  never  malicious.  "He  gave  us  the  impression  of 
a  man,  perfectly  kindly,  perfectly  sincere,  who  did  not  fear 
a  little  fun  between  two  masterpieces."  "He  had  the  art, 
very  delicate  and  very  difficult,  which,  among  people  of 
good  breeding,  obliterates  distances  without  confounding 
ranks ;  he  had,  in  a  word,  true  politeness,  that  of  the  heart. ' ' 
On  October  7,  appeared  "M.  Renan,  Familiar  Recollections 
of  One  of  His  Pupils,"  by  Philippe  Berger,  who  later  suc- 
ceeded his  master  both  in  the  chair  at  the  College  de  France 
and  in  that  of  the  Academy  of  Inscriptions.  Meanwhile 
every  day  there  were  notices  of  the  coming  funeral  cere- 
monies, for  to  Renan  was  accorded  all  the  dreary  ostentation 
of  a  public  solemnity  in  the  court  of  the  College  de  France. 
The  speeches  here  delivered  by  Leon  Bourgeois,  Boissier, 
Gaston  Paris  and  Alexandre  Bertrand,  were  published  in 
full  on  October  8,  together  with  an  account  of  the  military 
and  civic  procession  which  accompanied  the  corpse  to  the 
Montmartre  cemetery.  Here  Renan  was  laid  in  the  vault 
of  Ary  Scheffer.     He  could  not  repose,  as  he  had  wished, 

"*Ben6  d'Ys,  p.  377. 

371 


ERNEST  RENAN 

in  the  cloister  of  Treguier  under  a  stone  bearing  the  words 
— Veritatem  dilexi. 

Mme.  Renan  died  May  22,  1894. 

On  September  24,  1896,  a  plaque  was  placed,  not  without 
opposition,  on  the  house  in  Treguier  in  which  Renan  was 
born.  In  1903,  by  international  subscription,  a  statue  was 
erected  in  the  market  place.  It  was  unveiled  September  13, 
with  notable  ceremonies  at  which  Berthelot  spoke,  the  suc- 
ceeding generation  being  represented  by  Anatole  France.^^* 
Doubtless  with  no  excess  of  politeness  toward  the  order  to 
which  the  great  writer  owed  his  early  training,  the  streets 
leading  past  the  Seminary  at  Issy  and  the  Seminary  at  Tre- 
guier  have  been  each  named  rue  Renan. 

"Tor  all  these  matters,  see  Een6  d'Ya. 


CHAPTER  XI 
'origins  of  chbistianitt' 


In  Kenan's  thought  the  world  is  a  vast,  indefinite  or- 
ganism with  its  constituent  elements  in  continual  flux,  but 
with  a  constant  general  movement  of  the  whole  toward  some 
far-off  divine  event.  Within  this  universal  organism  oper- 
ate subsidiary  organisms  of  every  variety  in  vigor,  impor- 
tance and  direction — individuals,  groups,  races,  nations,  in- 
stitutions, inventions,  arts,  ideas,  philosophies — now  uniting 
in  harmonious  combinations,  now  flying  apart,  again  clash- 
ing in  mutually  destructive  dissonance,  growing,  hardening, 
dissolving,  but  all  functions  of  the  general,  irresistible  cur- 
rent toward  the  ultimate  development,  a  current  which  is 
conceived  as  the  will  of  God.  It  is  the  function  of  history 
to  deal  with  these  subsidiary  organisms,  and  the  historian 
of  any  one  of  them  will  seek  its  origin,  so  far  as  this  can  be 
fixed  in  the  uncertainty  and  flux  of  things,  and  will  then  trace 
its  comparatively  free  early  growth,  until  the  organism  be- 
comes to  a  large  extent  fixed  as  a  fully  developed  member 
of  the  body  of  human  affairs.  Naturally,  the  workings  of 
institutions  and  their  decay,  the  biographies  of  individuals, 
and  all  the  multitudinous  elements  in  the  study  of  the  past 
were  included  in  Kenan's  conception,  but  it  was  not  these 
that  excited  his  own  special  interest.  His  attention  was 
chiefly  attracted  by  the  origins  and  the  growth  to  maturity 
of  spiritual  forces  in  the  forward  world  movement;  and  in- 
dividuals, institutions,  philosophies,  and  all  the  rest,  were 
valued  only  so  far  as  they  contributed  to  this  result. 

373 


ERNEST  RENAN 

"If  I  had  at  my  disposal,"  he  says,  "several  lives,  I 
should  employ  one  in  writing  a  history  of  Alexander,  an- 
other in  writing  a  history  of  Athens,  a  third  in  writing 
either  a  history  of  the  French  Revolution  or  a  history  of 
the  order  of  Saint  Francis. ' '  ^  Obviously  what  gives  import 
to  each  of  these  subjects  is  not  merely  a  personality  or  the 
interest  of  a  series  of  incidents,  but  the  influence  of  ideas 
upon  the  progress  of  humanity.  And  in  the  one  life  at  his 
disposal  Renan  selected  as  his  task  the  History  of  the 
Origins  of  Christianity  because  Christianity  seemed  to  him 
the  greatest  force  in  the  world  tending  to  the  expansion  of 
the  human  soul  toward  the  infinite,  this  expansion  being  in 
his  view  the  highest  aspiration  of  the  individual  and  of  the 
race,  and  the  origins  being  the  period  of  most  intense  inter- 
est because  at  the  point  of  impact  the  movement  is  always 
most  rapid  and  unhampered. 

II 

The  "embryogeny"  of  Christianity  is  the  subject  studied 
in  these  seven  volumes,  the  formative  period,  the  period  of 
plastic  power;  and  when  the  child  possesses  all  its  organs, 
is  detached  from  its  mother  (the  Jewish  Synagogue),  and 
lives  its  own  distinct  life,  Renan  leaves  the  account  of  its 
later  career  to  those  who  choose  to  write  ecclesiastical  his- 
tory, a  worthy  task  indeed,  but  not  that  to  which  he  has 
dedicated  himself.  Under  another  image  he  presents  the 
church  as  a  river,  vast  as  the  Amazon,  of  which  he  seeks  in 
the  mountains  the  bubbling  source  and  the  dashing  upper 
courses.  Here  we  have  an  exploration  which  is  attractive 
and  interesting,  but  at  the  same  time  difficult,  and,  indeed, 
if  we  demand  strict  accuracy  in  detail,  impossible.  There 
are,  moreover,  two  tasks  involved,  the  purely  scientific  study 

*Le«  Apotres,  Introduction,  p.  liii. 

374 


ORIGINS  OF  CHRISTIANITY 

of  *  *  embryogeny, "  the  weighing  of  the  trustworthiness  of 
texts,  the  examination  of  inscriptions  and  coins,  the  applica- 
tion of  the  comparative  method ;  and  beyond  this  the  ar- 
tistic, the  poetic  task  of  achieving  a  human  grasp  of  the 
whole  and  of  transforming  literal  truth  into  imaginative 
truth. 

The  author's  guiding  principles  are  sufficiently  set  forth 
in  the  prefaces  to  the  several  volumes.  Absolutely  funda- 
mental is  the  dictum  that  no  miracle,  no  formal  derogation 
by  an  individual  will  from  known  laws,  no  intervention  of 
the  divinity  with  a  special  purpose  in  view,  is  to  be  admitted 
by  the  historian;  nor  are  there  in  existence  any  inspired 
writings,  true  to  the  letter  from  beginning  to  end.  The  laws 
of  the  material  world  and  of  human  psychology  have  been 
the  same  in  all  epochs,  and  in  no  authenticated  instance  has 
God  been  known  to  deviate  from  those  laws.^  But  while  the 
supernatural  is  excluded  from  individual  incidents,  there  is 
yet  in  the  world  a  mysterious  purpose  which  conducts  the 
whole  toward  some  unknown  event.  God  is  permanently 
present  in  everything,  particularly  in  every  living  thing. 
* '  Our  planet  labors  toward  some  profound  accomplishment. ' ' 
All  history  manifests  the  divine  current  in  human  affairs, 
and  everj'thing  that  furthei-s  the  ideal  is  a  contribution  to 
this  current.  "Hellenism  is  as  much  a  prodigy  of  beauty 
as  Christianity  is  a  prodigy  of  holiness.  The  unique  is  not 
miraculous.  In  varying  degi'ees  God  is  in  all  that  is  beau- 
tiful, good  and  true,  but  never  is  he  so  exclusively  in  one 
of  his  manifestations  that  the  presence  of  his  breath  in  any 
religious  or  philosophical  movement  may  be  considered  a 
privilege  or  an  exception. ' ' ' 

The  absence  of  the  supernatural  in  human  history  is  not 
theory,  but  fact ;  and  consequently  the  rejection  of  miracles 


*  Les  Apotres,  Introduction. 
*Ibid.,  p.  1. 

375 


ERNEST  BENAN 

does  not  fall  within  the  scope  of  controversy.  Polemical 
writing  is  indeed  foreign  to  Renan's  temperament.  Either 
to  attack  or  defend  religious  belief  forms  no  part  of  his 
purpose.  His  researches  are  in  the  region  of  pure  erudition. 
He  seeks  for  truth  without  passion,  without  partisanship, 
in  perfect  liberty,  and  regardless  of  any  effect  upon  faith 
or  practice.  "Science  alone  is  pure.  ...  Its  duty  is  to 
prove,  not  to  persuade  or  convert."*  Orthodoxy  has  no 
bearing  upon  his  opinions.  He  would  execute  his  work  with 
supreme  indifference,  as  if  writing  for  a  deserted  planet.' 
His  sole  devotion  is  given  to  truth  and  art. 

On  the  scientific  side  he  intends  that  his  work  shall  em- 
body the  results  and  conform  with  the  methods  of  the  best 
recent  critical  scholarship.  He  proclaims  his  indebtedness 
to  his  predecessors,  particularly  to  Baur  and  other  German 
critics  who  followed  him,  but  he  wisely  refrains  in  general 
from  cumbering  his  pages  with  references  to  modern  books, 
restricting  his  footnotes  to  citations  of  the  original  authori- 
ties. His  colleagues  at  the  College  de  France  also  collabor- 
ated with  him  on  points  of  scholarly  detail.  From  whatever 
source  obtained,  he  has  made  the  facts  his  own.  It  is  not  his 
purpose  to  introduce  extensive  critical  dissertations  on  dis- 
puted points;  these  matters  can  be  dealt  with,  so  far  as  is 
necessary,  in  an  introduction,  an  appendix,  or  a  technical 
journal.  He  tries,  however,  to  neglect  no  means  of  informa- 
tion or  control;  documents,  coins,  inscriptions,  ruins,  the 
results  of  i>sychology  and  linguistics,  comparison  of  the  rec- 
ords of  history,  experience  of  life  and  politics,  personal  visits 
to  the  places  at  which  the  events  took  place — all  are  at  his 
service  in  his  search  for  truth. 

In  respect  to  his  documents  his  tendency  is  less  skeptical 
than  that  of  most  freethinking  critics  of  the  New  Testament. 


*  Vie,  p.  xxviii. 

*  Les  Apdtres,  p.  liiL 

376 


ORIGINS  OF  CHRISTIANITY 

He  is  inclined  rather  to  favor  authenticity  than  to  reject 
ancient  tradition.  Even  where  doubts  are  too  strong  to  be 
dismissed,  he  draws  from  apocryphal  writings  valid  con- 
clusions concerning  general  beliefs  and  states  of  mind  at 
the  epoch  of  their  composition.  "When  a  writer  is  an  ad- 
vocate he  makes  allowance  for  his  prejudice;  when  he  is 
superstitious,  he  discounts  his  credulity;  when  he  is  a  fal- 
sifier, he  measures  him  by  his  purpose  and  by  his  audience. 
If  this  procedure  be  open  to  objection  on  points  of  detail, 
it  is  yet  in  no  way  injurious  to  the  general  fidelity  of  his 
portrayal,  for  he  is  dealing  with  a  period  about  which,  by 
common  consent,  certainty  is  unattainable.  It  is  here  that 
the  man  of  erudition  blends  into  the  artist. 

* '  The  talent  of  the  historian  lies  in  forming  a  true  whole 
from  details  that  are  only  half  true. ' '  °  For  obscure  periods, 
he  can  rarely  tell  with  precision  how  things  really  occurred, 
but  he  can  often  fashion  the  various  ways  in  which  they 
might  have  occurred.  If  the  history  of  such  times  were 
confined  to  certainties,  it  would  be  limited  to  a  few  lines, 
but  such  mere  naked  fact  is  really  more  inexact  than  truth 
made  expressive  and  eloquent  by  conjecture  and  imagina- 
tion. ' '  The  texts,  not  being  historical,  do  not  give  certitude ; 
but  they  give  something.  They  must  not  be  followed  with 
blind  confidence ;  their  testimony  must  not  be  rejected  with 
unjust  disdain.  One  must  seek  to  divine  what  they  conceal, 
without  ever  being  absolutely  sure  of  having  found  it."' 
In  his  authorities  the  scholar  encounters  fact  mingled  with 
fiction,  legends  full  of  inexactitude  and  errors,  even  syste- 
matic falsification ;  from  such  chaos  he  must  extract  historic 
truth  by  delicate  approximation.  When  he  has  presented 
the  certain  as  certain,  the  probable  as  probable,  and  the 
possible  as  possible,  his  conscience  may  be  at  rest. 


•  Vie,  p.  XX. 

*  Vie,  p.  xviL 

877 


ERNEST  RENAN 

His  evocation  of  the  past  is  compared  by  Renan  to  the 
reconstruction  of  the  pediment  of  the  Parthenon.  A  few 
fragments,  a  few  indications  are  given — pedantic  learning 
might  enumerate  and  describe  these  bit  by  bit,  but  could 
never  combine  them  into  a  semblance  of  what  they  once 
had  been.  The  artist  who  would  accomplish  this  feat  must 
be  able  first,  with  his  knowledge,  to  recognize,  and  piece 
together  the  scattered  members,  and  then,  with  his  im- 
agination, to  seize  the  soul,  the  life  of  the  original.  It  is 
not  enough  to  add  one  detail  to  another;  he  must  have 
a  grasp  of  the  whole  in  which  each  of  these  details  performs 
its  vital  function.  A  Paul,  a  Luke,  a  Theophilus,  is  not  a 
theological  dogma  or  a  logical  thesis,  but  a  mobile,  suscepti- 
ble, visionary,  irritable  human  personality,  and  the  move- 
ments of  which  these  men  were  leaders  were  movements  in 
which  such  personalities  united  or  clashed  in  ever  vary- 
ing combinations.  The  result,  of  course,  is  not  guaranteed 
to  be  an  exact  reproduction  of  the  past.  We  must  always 
repeat  "perhaps,"  "it  might  be,"  "it  is  said."  Even  the 
current  dates  on  each  page  are  merely  approximate.  The 
warning  given  in  the  first  volume,  and  repeated  in  others,  as 
the  work  proceeded,  seemed  to  Renan  sufficient.  But  the 
reader  is  apt  to  neglect  these  cautions.  The  text  is  gen- 
erally written  without  qualification,  so  that  he  finds  him- 
self unconsciously  regarding  the  plausible  narrative  as  a 
picture  of  indubitable  reality.  The  scientific  harm,  how- 
ever, is  slight.  Whatever  alteration  a  competent  student 
of  the  period  might  see  fit  to  make  in  this  or  that  incident 
or  character,  the  justice  of  the  general  impression  remains 
untouched,  and  the  portrayal  of  the  gradual  solidification 
of  the  fluid  elements  of  the  early  church  into  fixed  forms 
is  likely  to  be  accepted  as  a  permanent  historical  achieve- 
ment. At  any  rate,  we  know  that  our  guide  is  gifted  with 
a  rare  combination  of  solid  learning,  philosophic  judgment, 
poetic  intuition  and  power  of  artistic  expression. 

378 


ORIGINS  OF  CHRISTIANITY 

III 

The  vast  and  complex  pageant  opens  with  idyllic  scenes 
in  Galilee,  portraying  Jesus,  disciple  and  friend  of  John  the 
Baptist,  gathering  about  him  The  Twelve,  announcing  the 
Kingdom  of  God,  healing,  and  charming  the  simple  folk 
by  the  fascination  of  his  personality  and  the  loftiness  and 
intensity  of  his  idealism.  The  synagogue,  open  to  any 
speaker  who  elected  to  comment  on  the  scriptures,  offered 
unsurpassed  opportunities  for  the  preaching  of  the  Gospel, 
the  novelty  and  power  of  which  lay,  not  in  the  ideas  pro- 
pounded, but  in  the  character  of  Jesus  himself.  Soon  the 
joyous  days  of  outdoor  freedom  amid  the  rural  beauties  of 
the  region  about  the  Lake  of  Tiberias  give  place  to  bitter 
disputes  in  the  Temple  at  Jerusalem,  In  conflict  with  the 
Pharisees  Jesus  grows  somber,  his  teaching  deteriorates  in 
the  atmosphere  of  controversy,  his  conservative  opponents 
hound  him  to  his  destruction,  and  the  Messiah  of  the  poor 
ends  his  life  on  the  cross,    (vie  de  jesus,) 

But  the  death  of  such  a  man  seems  to  his  simple  adherents 
an  absurdity,  an  impossibility.  The  love  of  the  followers 
of  Jesus  performed  the  miracle  of  the  resurrection.  Mary 
Magdalene  saw  him  near  the  empty  tomb,  the  vision  was 
contagious,  all  believed  that  he  was  risen.  Then  as  the  fever 
and  exaltation  declined,  the  visions  grew  rare;  they  were 
replaced  by  the  presence  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  manifested  by 
trances,  convulsions,  incoherent  ravings,  called  prophecy  and 
the  gift  of  tongues.  Meanwhile,  the  disciples,  gathered  at 
Jerusalem,  formed  a  communistic  society,  the  primitive 
church,  Judea  and  Samaria  were  evangelized ;  Stephen,  the 
first  martyr,  was  stoned ;  Paul  was  smitten  by  his  vision  on 
the  way  to  Damascus;  the  Gospel  reached  Antioch,  the 
center  from  which  the  great  apostle  was  to  issue  to  convert 
the  Gentiles.  Christianity,  still  little  more  than  a  germ, 
but  now  at  least  named,  is  thus  brought  into  contact  with 

379 


ERNEST  RENAN 

Hellenic  culture  and  with  the  organization  of  the  Roman 
state. 

Christianity  now  reaches  out  beyond  its  natal  land.  In 
all  the  principal  cities  of  the  Mediterranean  coasts,  the 
Jews  had  established  synagogues.  In  these  Paul  began 
his  preaching,  first  to  the  Jews,  then  to  the  Gentiles.  The 
Galatians,  the  Philippians,  the  Thessalonians,  the  Corinthi- 
ans, the  Ephesians,  the  Colossians  heard  his  voice.  In  each 
city  that  harbored  a  Jewish  community  he  met  the  hos- 
tility of  the  strict  observers  of  Hebrew  ritual,  but  skeptical 
and  philosophic  Athens  smiled  at  the  agitator  and  soon 
found  him  wearisome.  Subsisting  on  his  own  labor,  and 
braving  the  hardships  and  perils  of  travel  and  the  enmity 
of  foes,  he  preached  the  word  and  established  churches, 
little  confraternities  that  met  in  an  upper  room,  not  bound 
together  by  circumcision  and  the  law,  which  the  congrega- 
tion of  Jerusalem  exacted,  but  united  in  freedom  by  bap- 
tism, the  Eucharist  and  the  spirit  of  Christ.  To  these 
beloved  churches,  and  to  the  church  of  Rome,  whose  only 
known  members,  Aquila  and  Priscilla,  indicate  that  very 
humble  folk  first  brought  the  word  to  the  ghetto  in  the 
Eternal  City,  he  wrote  letters,  which  later  became  the 
basis  of  theological  dogma.  But  Jerusalem  was  still  the 
Holy  City  and  the  rigid,  communistic  James  the  head  of 
the  church.  Even  though  Paul  may  in  Antioch  sternly 
reprehend  the  timid  and  vacillating  Peter,  he  is  obliged  to 
visit  those  still  attached  to  the  Temple  and  make  conces- 
sions to  the  rite  of  circumcision.  Seized,  imprisoned  and 
brought  to  judgment,  at  the  instigation  of  the  formalists, 
he  appeals  to  Ceesar,  journeys  to  Rome,  and  there  vanishes 
from  the  light,     (les  apotres,  a.d.  33-45.) 

Rome  now  becomes  the  center  of  the  story,  and  Nero,  the 
dilettante,  public  singer,  poetaster,  comedian,  madman,  be- 
comes the  principal  personage.  Peter,  constantly  following 
in  the  trace  of  Paul  to  counteract  his  teachings  on  the  abro- 

380 


ORIGINS  OF  CHRISTIANITY 

gation  of  the  Jewish  law  through  the  sacrifice  of  Christ, 
comes  to  Rome,  the  proud  city  unaware  that  this  poor 
Syrian  wanderer  would  dominate  its  destiny.  In  the  per- 
secution that  follows  the  great  conflagration,  both  meet 
martyrdom.  John  escapes  to  Patmos,  where  he  gives  forth 
his  apocalyptic  vision,  filled  with  hatred  of  the  Empire 
and  the  Emperor,  the  Antichrist,  who  rules  the  world  until 
flames  shaU  destroy  iniquity  and  leave  dominion  to  the  just. 
Meanwhile  James  is  stoned  at  Jerusalem,  the  little  church 
he  governed  flees  to  the  desert,  where  it  fades  into  insignifi- 
cance, the  fanatics  of  the  city  revolt,  and  Jerusalem  and 
the  Temple  are  utterly  destroyed  by  Titus.  Civilization  and 
reason  have  triumphed  over  theocracy,  the  West  has  van- 
quished the  East,  but  the  revenge  is  even  now  preparing. 
The  great,  unconscious  artist,  who  presides  over  the  ap- 
parent caprices  of  history,  has  made  a  masterly  dramatic 
stroke.  Freed  from  the  shackles  of  Judaism  and  refounded 
by  persecution,  the  church  moves  forward  toward  its  tdti- 
mate  conquest  of  the  Roman  Empire,  (l'antechrist,  a.d. 
61-73.) 

With  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem,  the  violent  Jewish  fa- 
natics, as  well  as  the  Sadducees,  became  extinct;  the  tradi- 
tion of  the  Pharisees  persisted  with  the  study  and  observance 
of  the  Law,  petrified  into  the  subtleties  of  the  Talmud.  To 
all  this  the  Christians  were  hostile  and  a  growing  antagonism 
separated  them  sharply  from  the  Jews.  Even  the  Jewish 
Christians  began  to  shrink  in  importance,  and  the  com- 
munistic Ebionites  of  the  East  proceeded  on  their  way 
toward  insignificance  and  heresy.  All  the  Apostles  were 
dead,  and  Christ  had  not  yet  come  in  glory;  the  church 
must  adapt  itself  to  daily  human  life.  The  western  churches 
tended  toward  unity;  at  Rome,  Clement,  almost  a  pope, 
showed  a  love  of  moderation  and  order,  and  in  organization 
regarded  the  presbyters  as  preeminent.  At  the  same  time 
was  felt  the  necessity  of  sacred  books.    The  first  generation 

381 


ERNEST  RENAN 

had  preferred  oral  tradition,  but  the  second  generation 
needed  to  fix  the  life  and  words  of  Jesus  in  writing.  The 
anecdotes  and  groups  of  sayings  that  were  in  circulation 
soon  acquired  a  normal  form  and  arrangement.  In  con- 
structing the  life  of  the  master,  the  accomplishment  of  Old 
Testament  predictions  had  an  important  share.  The  general- 
process  was  aided  by  the  oriental  unconcern  for  material 
fact.  Mark,  having  often  acted  as  Peter's  interpreter,  trans- 
lating the  Apostle 's  Syrian  stories  into  Greek  as  he  told  them 
to  the  congregations,  at  length,  now  that  his  teacher  was 
dead,  wrote  these  stories  out  in  the  same  dry,  narrow  and 
credulous  spirit  to  which  he  had  been  accustomed.  Soon 
followed  the  most  valuable  book  ever  written,  the  Gospel 
ascribed  to  Matthew,  a  treasury  of  sayings  and  a  master- 
piece of  popular  story-telling.  The  literary  Gospel,  on  the 
other  hand,  based,  not  only  on  traditions,  but  on  documents, 
is  composed  by  the  conciliatory  Luke  under  the  influence  of 
the  spirit  of  Paul.  But  in  reality  these  brief  legendary  nar- 
ratives are  not  to  be  credited  to  their  reputed  authors ;  who- 
ever may  have  held  the  pen,  Jesus  is  the  actual  creator,  and 
next  after  his  life  itself,  the  composition  of  the  Gospels  is 
the  capital  fact  in  the  history  of  Christianity,  (les  ^van- 
GILES,  A.D.  74-117.) 

Dogmatism  and  speculation  begin  with  the  fourth  Gospel, 
which,  though  not  authentic,  presents  a  real  tradition  differ- 
ing from  that  of  the  Synoptics.  The  words  here  ascribed  to 
Jesus  are,  however,  invented  to  support  a  thesis;  Christ  be- 
comes the  Logos,  and  the  Holy  Spirit  is  transformed  into 
the  Paraclete.  The  tone,  too,  is  anti-Jewish.  Soon  the  death 
of  Jesus  is  laid  to  the  Jews,  Justin  writes  against  the  Law, 
and  theological  quarrels  between  Jews  and  Christians  arise. 
There  are  also  disputes  among  the  Christians  themselves. 
Gnosticism  developed  and  built  the  bridge  over  which  pagan 
practices  entered  the  Church.  The  prevalence  of  sects,  char- 
latanism and  individual  aberrations  threatened  anarchy,  but 

382 


ORIGINS  OF  CHRISTIANITY 

this  danger  in  the  end  strengthened  authority,  and  learned 
bishops  began  to  direct  doctrine  and  practice.  When  the  dis- 
pute about  Easter  threatened  disruption,  the  aged  Polycarp, 
soon  after  a  martyr  at  Smyrna,  journeyed  to  Rome  in  the  in- 
terest of  accommodation.  In  the  face  of  fraudulent  Epistles 
and  Acts,  of  puerile  Apocrypha,  and  uninspired  Apocalypses, 
the  four  Gospels  tended  to  become  canonical,  living  tradition 
ceased  to  produce,  and  dead  tradition  was  established  and 
fixed.  At  the  same  time,  the  organization  of  the  Church 
grew  more  settled  and  more  aristocratic  with  the  dominance 
of  presbyters  or  bishops;  orthodoxy  came  into  being,  and, 
with  it,  the  idea  of  Catholicity.  Meanwhile  persecution  con- 
tinued under  the  law  against  associations  and  through  popu- 
lar hatred  of  "atheists"  who  scorned  the  national  or  local 
gods.  The  last  revolt  of  the  Jews  was  cruelly  suppressed. 
Hadrian,  restoring  ancient  customs  and  rebuilding  ancient 
cities  and  temples  as  he  traveled  about,  erected  on  the  waste 
site  of  Jerusalem  a  new  Roman  city.  But  the  ancient  world 
is  smitten  with  a  fatal  maladj^  and,  even  under  the  good 
emperors,  a  pervading  sadness  betokens  its  decline.  (l.'eglisb 

CHR^TIENNE,  A.D.  117-161.) 

All  the  perfection  that  Stoic  philosophy  could  produce  is 
exhibited  in  I\Iarcus  Aurelius,  most  pious  of  men,  the  boast 
of  no  particular  religion,  of  no  metaphysical  system,  but  an 
honor  to  the  human  race.  For  over  a  generation,  the  world 
was  ruled  by  philosophers,  who  fostered  social  and  moral 
progress.  Stoicism  prompted  a  liberal  policy,  developed 
charity,  and  humanized  law  and  administration.  On  the 
other  hand,  art  declined,  physical  science  was  neglected,  and 
the  grossest  superstition,  fostered  by  oriental  religions  and 
astrology,  prevailed  even  among  the  more  intelligent.  A 
popular  demand  perpetuated  the  persecution  of  the  Chris- 
tians, whose  constancy  was  vividly  testified  by  the  martyrs 
of  Lyons.  This  age,  indeed,  witnessed  the  full  blooming  of 
the  youth  of  Christianity.    There  was  an  active  correspond- 

383 


ERNEST  RENAN 

ence  between  the  churches;  apologists  arose,  some  assailing 
Greek  philosophy,  some  attempting  a  reconciliation,  some 
even  addressing  the  Emperor;  lay  theologians,  then  clerical 
doctors,  began  to  write,  and  schools,  particularly  that  of 
Alexandria,  grew  prominent.  There  were  sects  and  heresies 
innumerable,  propagating  every  variety  of  excess  and  absurd- 
ity, but  all  were  broken  against  the  episcopate,  Greek  in 
origin,  but  Roman  in  development,  which  saved  and  now 
began  to  rule  the  church.  Rome  gave,  not  doctrine,  but  disci- 
pline, the  spirit  of  practical  organization.  Geographical 
divisions  followed  the  boundaries  established  by  Augustus; 
the  city  was  the  unit  to  which  the  neighboring  villages  were 
attached;  over  provincial  councils  presided  the  bishop  rep- 
resenting the  capital  of  the  province;  Rome  became  more 
and  more  the  ecclesiastical  center,  its  bishop,  Victor,  even 
threatening  the  excommunication  of  those  who  disagreed 
with  him  on  the  subject  of  Easter.  Authority  had  displaced 
individual  inspiration,  and  orthodoxy  frowned  on  unlicensed 
healing,  prophecy  and  the  gift  of  tongues.  When  death  took 
Marcus  Aurelius,  wearied  with  too  much  labor,  contempla- 
tion and  self-discipline,  and  gave  the  imperial  power  to  his 
unspeakable  son,  all  the  chief  observances  of  the  Church 
were  in  existence,  even  if  not  yet  completely  fixed.  Here  are 
found  the  mass,  baptism,  holy  marriage,  penance,  hymns,  the 
cult  of  martyrs,  reverence  for  the  Virgin ;  Sunday  had  taken 
the  place  of  the  Sabbath,  and  Easter  and  Pentecost  were  the 
chief  festivals.  From  the  lowly  life  of  Jesus,  prolonged  be- 
yond death  by  the  simple  love  and  faith  of  a  handful  of 
ignorant  outcasts,  had  sprung  a  vast  organism,  fed  from 
countless  streams  of  influence,  humble  at  first,  but  expanding 
step  by  step,  growing  so  great  that  it  will  form  a  union  with 
the  haughty  power  that  had  tried  to  crush  it,  and  by  insin- 
uating the  seeds  of  dissolution,  will  undermine  and  at  last 
destroy  the  proudest  of  world  empires,  (marc-aur^le,  a.d. 
161-180.) 

384 


ORIGINS  OF  CHRISTIANITY 


IV 

Here  is  no  completed  action,  with  beginning,  middle  and 
end,  but  an  expanding  action  in  its  initial  stages,  an  action 
thai  goes  on  indefinitely  with  no  visible  termination  and  with 
no  precise  limits.  There  is  no  interruption  of  living  contin- 
uity. The  final  situation  concludes  nothing;  the  subject  has 
simply  arrived  at  a  state  of  relative  maturity  and  stability. 
A  series  of  episodes  has  brought  about  a  condition  that  opens 
up  and  looks  forward  to  a  vast  new  series  of  future  episodes. 
Nevertheless,  the  point  at  which  the  work  stops  is  not  merely 
accidental ;  it  is  felt  to  be  inevitable.  While  there  is  no  me- 
chanical and  regulated  completeness,  there  yet  presides  here 
another  sort  of  unity  governed  by  the  wider  correspondences 
between  the  course  of  evolution  and  the  human  conception  of 
design  and  purpose. 

Although  the  main  features  of  his  history  were  outlined 
from  the  beginning,  the  plan  of  the  artist  changed  consider- 
ably as  the  work  progressed  and  he  became  more  fully  aware 
of  the  symmetry  of  his  theme.  At  the  moment  when  he  had 
finished  writing  Saint  Paul,  he  expected  to  complete  his  task 
with  two  more  volumes,  to  be  accomplished  in  the  next  five 
years ;  but  the  material  grew  as  he  advanced  and,  on  ending 
Les  lEva/ngiles,  the  second  of  these  projected  volumes,  he 
found  another  necessary  to  carry  the  story  to  about  the  year 
160.  But  once  more,  at  the  close  of  this,  his  sixth  volume, 
the  artistic  rounding  out  of  his  subject  demanded  a  further 
extension.  By  carrying  his  story  foi-ward  to  the  death  of 
Marcus  Aurelius,  he  was  enabled  to  introduce  a  climax,  the 
suppression  of  Montanism  by  discipline  and  orthodoxy,  fur- 
nishing a  supreme  test  of  the  stability  and  power  of  the 
Church,  and,  at  the  same  time,  he  was  enabled  to  include  a 
most  effective  moral  contrast,  a  demonstration  also  of  the 
fact,  so  dear  to  him,  that  religion  is  a  necessity  for  humanity, 

385 


ERNEST  RENAN 

his  elaborate  study  of  the  futile  attempt  of  philosophy  to 
save  the  world.  In  this  epoch,  indeed,  he  sees  the  end  of 
ancient  civilization,  the  exhaustion  of  the  Hellenico-Roman 
principle  and  the  approaching  triumph  of  the  Judeo-Syrian. 

When  Renan  first  published  his  Life  of  Jesus,  he  said: 
"The  prior  movements  do  not  belong  to  our  subject,  except- 
ing in  so  far  as  they  serve  to  explain  these  extraordinary  men, 
who  naturally  could  not  have  been  without  some  ties  with 
what  preceded  them";  but,  having  completed  his  portrayal 
of  the  early  Church,  he  felt  that  his  work  lacked  that  pre- 
paratory part  which  the  epic  poets  treat  as  the  main  episode, 
the  prehistory  of  their  hero.  Aeneas  and  Odysseus  narrate 
the  events  that  led  up  to  the  main  action  of  the  poem :  Renan 
goes  back  eight  centuries  to  explain  the  moral  and  religious 
conditions  that  underlay  the  life  and  teachings  of  Jesus  and 
the  development  of  Christianity.  In  strict  logic,  he  admits, 
this  part  should  have  come  first.  "But  life  is  short  and  its 
duration  uncertain.  I  proceeded  to  what  was  most  pressing ; 
I  threw  myself  into  the  midst  of  my  subject  and  began  with 
the  life  of  Jesus,  taking  it  for  granted  that  the  previous  revo- 
lutions in  Jewish  religion  were  familiar  to  my  readers. ' '  ^ 
In  this  case  the  demands  of  expediency  had  a  fortunate 
artistic  result,  and  the  History  of  the  Jewish  People  pro- 
duces its  proper  effect  when  read  after  the  Origins  of  Chris- 
tianity. 

As  the  hero  of  this  epic,  if  the  life  work  of  Renan  may  be 
so  regarded,  is  not  an  individual,  but  a  vast  complex  of  emo- 
tions, ideas,  beliefs,  institutions  and  personalities,  so  the 
principles  of  composition  must  be  of  a  new  order  adapted  to 
this  abstract  type  of  subject  matter.  The  treatment  is  no 
longer  obedient  to  rules,  but  is  shaped  by  the  requirements 
of  historical  fact  and  philosophical  conception.  The  art  is 
the  art  of  adjustment.    It  demands  a  true  sense  of  proportion 

*  Marc-AwrSle,  p.  vi. 

386 


ORIGINS  OF  CHRISTIANITY 

and  continuity.  The  unity  results  from  the  establishment  of 
relations  in  the  midst  of  seeming  confusion  and  the  reduction 
of  the  apparently  accidental  to  an  ordered  whole.  In  addi- 
tion, the  portrayal  must  be  true  to  life,  and  it  must,  at  the 
same  time,  rest  upon  sound  critical  scholarship.  Even  if 
there  can  be  no  "material  certitude,"  the  inferences  and 
divinations  must  be  based  upon  a  solid  scientific  foundation 
and  the  grand  resultant  must,  in  its  general  lines  at  least,  be 
a  correct  representation  of  reality.  In  investigation,  how- 
ever, no  startling  innovations  were  any  longer  to  be  looked 
for;  the  critical  point  of  view,  whatever  differences  there 
might  be  in  problems  of  detail,  was  already  established  and 
the  chief  results  were  accepted  by  a  host  of  competent  schol- 
ars. Here,  without  question,  the  Germans,  Baur  and  his  suc- 
cessors, had  surveyed  the  route  and  pretty  completely  con- 
structed the  highway.  A  few  rectifications  and  repairs  were 
all  that  was  left  to  accomplish.  All  that  these  workers  had 
done  and  were  doing  Renan  knew  thoroughly  well,  but  he  had 
also  himself  covered  the  whole  field  of  original  authorities, 
and  added  to  it,  and  on  all  points  in  controversy  he  was  able 
to  make  up  his  own  mind.  His  views  are  truly  his  own.  What 
is  even  more  conspicuously  and  characteristically  his  own, 
however,  is  his  imaginative  moulding  of  the  whole  conception 
into  a  work  of  art  as  personal  in  its  own  way  as  the  Divina 
Convmedia  or  the  Paradise  Lost. 


When,  for  the  first  time,  Renan  conceived  a  history  of  the 
origins  of  Christianity,  he  conceived  it  as  a  history  of  doc- 
trines, in  which  personalities  should  play  but  little  part ;  even 
Jesus  would  hardly  have  been  named.  But  he  came  to  recog- 
nize that  history  is  not  a  mere  play  of  abstractions,  that  the 
real  forces  are  men,  "Parseeism,  Hellenism,  Judaism  could 
have  combined  in  every  form,  the  doctrines  of  the  resurreo- 

387 


ERNEST  RENAN 

tion  and  the  "Word  could  have  developed  for  centuries,  with- 
out producing  that  fecund,  unique,  grandiose  fact  called 
Christianity.  That  fact  is  the  work  of  Jesus,  of  Saint  Paul, 
of  the  Apostles.  To  compose  the  history  of  Jesus,  of  Saint 
Paul,  of  the  Apostles,  is  to  compose  the  history  of  the  origins 
of  Christianity."  ^  The  Life  of  Jesus  is  therefore  a  biogra- 
phy, and  the  biographical  element  is  prominent  throughout 
each  of  the  seven  volumes.  And  yet  the  portrayal  of  individ- 
uals is  rarely  graphic ;  the  personality  is  there,  indeed,  but 
it  is  a  sort  of  incarnation  of  a  dimly  striving  cosmic  force, 
half  unconsciously  operative  in  a  great  social  and  spiritual 
movement,  this  movement  being  utterly  different  from  any- 
thing that  the  actors  in  it  can  purpose  or  even  dream  of. 

No  human  character  in  the  work  is  more  real  than  Jesus. 
In  addition  to  the  story  of  the  Evangelists,  Renan  had  before 
his  eyes  "a  Fifth  Gospel,  lacerated  but  still  legible,"  the 
landscape  of  Palestine,  which  transformed  for  him  an  ab- 
stract being  into  a  figure  that  lived  and  moved.^°  The  stony, 
narrow  streets  of  Nazareth  where  Jesus  played  as  a  child; 
the  splendid  view  from  the  plateau  above  the  town,  including 
nearly  all  the  scenes  of  his  activities;  the  encircling  distant 
mountain  ranges,  beyond  which  his  feet  never  strayed  except 
on  pilgrimages  to  the  arid  regions  about  Jerusalem;  the 
smiling,  flowery,  well-shaded  meadows  of  Galilee,  where  he 
lived  an  idyllic  and  joyous  life  amid  the  beneficent  beauties 
of  nature ;  the  little  canton  at  the  head  of  the  Sea  of  Tiberias, 
together  with  Gennesaret  on  the  opposite  side,  where  Jesus 
laid  the  foundation  of  his  divine  work;  these  are  brought 
before  our  sight  as  a  harmonious  setting  for  a  delicious  pas- 
toral, the  birth  of  Christianity  among  the  naive  fisher  folk 
and  artisans  upon  whom  Jesus  exercised  his  fascination. 
Here  daily  wants  were  insignificant;  there  was  no  need  of 
taking  thought  of  the  morrow ;  life  was  simple,  gay  and  free 

•  Vie,  p.  c. 
"  Vie,  p.  xcix. 

388 


ORIGINS  OF  CHRISTIANITY 

from  care ;  materialism  had  no  power  to  cramp  the  soul.  The 
gentle,  ardent,  lovable  young  Jesus,  with  the  beautiful  Jew- 
ish countenance,  is  indeed  no  absolute  fact,  but  the  creation 
of  an  artist,  whose  studies  and  meditations  and  visions  be- 
came bodily  form.  Where  the  exact  lineaments  are  un- 
obtainable, we  get  an  imaginative  portrait,  true  to  the  spirit 
and  costume  of  the  age  and  locality,  yet  colored  with  every 
trait  of  the  ideal.  We  see  the  little  schoolboy  repeating  Bible 
texts  in  chorus  with  his  comrades ;  learning  nothing  of  Hel- 
lenic culture,  of  scientific  progress  or  of  the  general  state  of 
the  world,  but  conserving  the  fresh  naivete  that  would  have 
been  enfeebled  by  extended  and  varied  knowledge ;  we  see  the 
youth,  free  from  asceticism  and  the  bizarre  scholasticism  of 
Jerusalem,  not  too  much  occupied  with  the  Law,  but  nour- 
ished on  the  poetry  and  allegory  of  the  psalms,  the  prophets 
and  the  Apocalypse  of  Daniel ;  we  see  the  young  carpenter,  a 
man  of  universal  charm,  living  in  perfect  liberty  of  soul, 
burdened  with  neither  dogma  nor  system,  but  conscious  of 
God,  his  Father,  dwelling  in  the  infinite  sweetness  and  tender- 
ness of  his  own  heart.  Disinterested  absorption  in  the  idea, 
disdain  of  material  well-being,  contempt  of  worldly  greatness, 
exaltation  of  the  humble,  the  downtrodden  and  the  despised, 
tolerance,  delicacy,  tact,  joyous  simplicity,  personal  attrac- 
tiveness— these  are  some  of  the  qualities  that  make  up  the 
endearing  personality.  A  mystic,  ardent  nature,  he  regards 
everything  that  concerns  himself  as  ruled  by  God  and  sees 
a  sign  of  the  divine  will  in  the  most  insignificant  circum- 
stances. Miracle  is  a  normal  condition  resulting  from  the 
familiar  relations  of  God  and  man.  The  exorcism  and  thau- 
maturgy  of  the  healer  are  a  natural  outgrowth  of  untaught 
credulity.  The  superhuman  claims  of  the  self-conscious  Mes- 
siah, the  vehement  blasts  of  the  transcendental  revolutionist 
who  saw  the  kingdom  of  God  at  hand  destroying  and  rebuild- 
ing, the  exaggerations,  the  reproaches,  the  bitter  invectives 
of  the  heated  preacher,  these  seeming  defects  axe  touched  by 

389 


ERNEST  RENAN 

the  artist  in  such  a  fashion  as  not  to  mar  the  harmony  of  the 
picture.  Renan  indeed  feels  distaste  and  regret  when  he  is 
obliged  to  represent  the  disputes  and  denunciations  at  Jeru- 
salem. The  purity  of  the  idea  is  soiled  in  the  process  of 
propaganda.  Even  here  he  always  emphasizes  the  sweet- 
ness, amiability  and  social  charm  of  Jesus,  and  delights  to 
take  him  out  of  the  narrow  turmoil  of  the  dreary  city  into 
the  friendly  retirement  of  Bethany, 

The  calm,  objective  narrative  of  the  arrest,  trial  and  cruci- 
fixion is  vivid  and  natural,  so  real  indeed  as  to  fill  the  reader 
with  distress ;  but  the  pang  of  pity  for  the  victim  soon  fades 
in  contemplation  of  the  cosmic  import  of  the  sacrifice.  If 
Jesus  hftd  been  released,  he  might  have  worn  himself  out  in 
a  desperate  contest  with  the  impossible;  or,  still  greater 
tragedy,  grown  old,  dried  and  hardened  by  years  and  expe- 
rience, he  might  have  sunk  into  a  maker  of  formulas,  the 
master  of  a  school.  In  either  case  he  would  have  been  impo- 
tent in  the  world  movement.  It  was  his  mission  to  die  in  the 
freshness  of  life,  leaving  in  the  hearts  of  his  followers  a  love 
that  created  the  Resurrection  and  eternalized  the  figure  of 
the  Son  of  God.  He  had  founded  a  kingdom  not  of  this 
world,  the  kingdom  of  the  pure  in  heart. 

Throughout  the  remaining  volumes  of  the  Origins,  there  is 
a  constant  return  to  the  personality  of  Jesus  as  the  central 
theme :  ' '  Jesus  alone  always  had,  in  the  mysterious  process  of 
the  growth  of  Christianity,  the  great,  the  triumphant,  the 
decisive  part.  Each  Christian  book,  each  institution  is  of 
value  in  proportion  to  what  it  contains  of  Jesus.^^  Even 
those  developments  of  the  church  which  seem  most  alien  to 
the  ideas  of  the  Galilean  teacher  are  derived,  often  in  some 
distorted  way,  from  his  personality  and  his  career.  And 
looking  forward  at  the  close  of  his  work,  Renan  insists  that, 
beyond  a  doubt,  "whatever  may  be  the  religious  future  of 

"L'Antechrist,  p.  477. 

390 


ORIGINS  OF  CHRISTIANITY 

humanity,  in  that  future  the  place  of  Jesus  will  be  immense. ' ' 
In  contrast  with  Jesus, — the  active,  germinating  force — 
stands  Marcus  Aurelius,  the  weary  fruit  of  a  maturity  verg- 
ing toward  decline.  The  one  opens,  the  other  closes  the 
exposition.  To  Renan,  the  Stoic  emperor  is  one  of  the  heroes 
of  the  life  of  the  spirit,  and  his  Thoughts  constitute  a  sort  of 
Gospel  no  less  divine  in  its  way  than  the  sayings  of  Jesus ;  yet 
he  perceives  that  this  most  glorious  representative  of  our  race 
"exercised  no  durable  sway  over  the  world."  Unsur- 
passed in  elevation  of  soul,  heroism,  devotion,  self-sacrifice, 
he  exerted  his  vast  power  for  humane  ends,  for  public  felic- 
ity, for  the  amelioration  of  character,  A  wicked  son  annihi- 
lated his  accomplishment.  "The  religion  of  Marcus  Aure- 
lius, as  occasionally  that  of  Jesus,  is  absolute  religion,  the 
religion  that  results  from  a  lofty  moral  consciousness  placed 
face  to  face  with  the  universe. ' '  ^^  Such  absolute  religion  is, 
however,  a  gift  for  the  elect.  This  most  pious  of  men  morti- 
fied the  senses,  strove  for  the  union  of  his  spirit  with  an  in- 
definite God,  met  every  evil  with  complete  resignation,  every 
temptation  with  renunciation ;  yet  he  was  sad,  skeptical,  dis- 
illusioned. Having  attained  perfect  goodness  and  absolute 
tolerance,  he  looked  upon  wickedness  and  stupidity  with  an 
indifference  tempered  with  pity  and  disdain.  As  emperor, 
he  lived  in  inward  solitude ;  a  favorite  of  fortune,  he  could 
smile  at  mindless  and  insensible  death.  Calmly  and  stead- 
fastly he  endured  the  complete  ennui  that  weighs  upon  the 
blase  soul  of  the  clear-eyed  philosopher.  The  Thoughts,  in- 
comparable book,  can  never  grow  old;  yet  history  furnishes 
no  more  striking  example  than  Marcus  Aurelius  of  the  fact 
that  philosophy  as  a  motive  power  upon  the  masses  is  utterly 
ineffectual. 

Midway  in  the  vast  narrative  appears,  in  all  his  ghastly 
monstrosity,  that  other  contrast  to  Jesus,  Nero,  the  Anti- 

"  Maro-Aurile,  p.  272. 

391 


ERNEST  RENAN 

Christ,  who  also  continiied  after  his  death  so  strangely  to  live 
on  in  popular  belief.  Romanticist,  poet,  singer,  public  his- 
trionic performer,  sculptor,  madman,  "he  conceived  the 
world  as  a  horrible  comedy  in  which  he  was  the  chief  actor. ' ' 
Even  in  his  most  cruel  enormities  he  was  a  dilettante,  and  his 
licentiousness  was  * '  the  debauchery  of  perverse  estheticism. ' ' 
No  vulgar  monster,  he  had  traces  of  the  soul  of  the  artist; 
and  he  was  not  entirely  devoid  of  heart,  he  loved  and  he  was 
loved.  All  the  varied  contours  of  this  abnormity  are  de- 
picted, the  little  good  and  the  immense  evil,  and  the  naked 
horrors  of  his  crimes  are  unsparingly  revealed;  yet  the  re- 
cital is  conducted  without  hatred  or  disgust,  as  a  surgeon 
might  describe  a  loathsome  malignant  growth.  This  method 
is  more  effective  than  loud  declamation.  It  renders  in  all  its 
stark  reality  this  object  of  the  horror  of  the  early  Christian 
—the  Christ  of  Hell. 

Both  as  personalities  and  as  cosmic  forces,  two  other  char- 
acters appear  prominently  throughout  the  seven  volumes, 
Peter  and  Paul.  James,  brother  of  the  Lord,  the  ascetic  chief 
of  the  church  at  Jerusalem,  is  individualized  merely  through 
his  intolerant  Pharisaism  and  stiff-necked  adherence  to  cir- 
cumcision and  other  Jewish  rites.  It  is  with  a  sigh  that 
Renan  notes  the  painful  decline  in  passing  from  Jesus  to  the 
Twelve  Apostles.  They  are  virtuous  mediocrities.  John 
alone,  to  whom  is  ascribed  the  Apocalypse,  displayed  some 
invention.  The  frank  impulsive  Peter,  who  won  the  confi- 
dence and  esteem  of  Jesus,  is  mildly  attractive.  His  affec- 
tion brings  him  visions  of  his  risen  Lord,  but  he  is  so  nar- 
row and  credulous  that  his  view  is  obstructed  by  miracles 
and  his  memory  transforms  his  master  into  a  great  magician. 
The  good  man,  though  sincere,  is  also  timid  and  suffers  from 
the  not  uncommon  weakness  of  wishing  to  content  every  one 
for  the  sake  of  peace.  He  is  thus  on  both  sides  of  the  con- 
troversy about  circumcision,  and  draws  upon  his  head  the 
wrath  of  Paul. 

392 


ORIGINS  OF  CHRISTIANITY 

Paul  is,  after  Jesus, — with  whom,  however,  in  Kenan's 
judgment,  he  will  not  bear  comparison — the  most  elaborate 
of  the  Christian  portraits.  Physically  he  is  a  typical  Jewish 
figure;  sickly,  but  of  marvelous  endurance,  short,  thickset, 
with  stooping  shoulders,  homely  countenance,  bald  head, 
thick  beard,  long  nose,  piercing  eyes  and  black  meeting  eye- 
brows. In  mind  he  is  equally  typical:  ardent  and  exalted, 
imperious  and  authoritative,  stiff  and  unbending,  even  rough 
and  choleric,  tending  toward  isolation  and  brooking  no  mas- 
ter or  equal  among  his  companions ;  yet  just  as  often  calm, 
polite,  submissive,  gentle,  affectionate,  disinterested.  "One 
feels  that  his  character,  in  moments  when  passion  did  not 
make  him  irascible  and  fierce,  must  have  been  that  of  a  pol- 
ished, eager,  affectionate  man,  though  at  times  susceptible 
and  somewhat  jealous."  He  commands,  blames,  speaks  of 
himself  with  the  utmost  assurance,  even  proposes  himself  as 
a  model,  and  again  goes  just  as  far  in  conciliation  and  hu- 
mility. He  gained  his  own  bread  by  labor  as  a  canvas- 
worker,  he  often  traveled  on  foot  amid  the  greatest  perils, 
he  suffered  poverty  and  hardship  for  the  love  of  souls.  Like 
a  modem  socialist  laborer,  he  journeyed  from  town  to  town, 
from  synagogue  to  synagogue,  to  spread  his  doctrines.  His 
zeal  was  unquenchable.  With  a  cold  temperament  but  an 
ardent  brain,  he  employed  all  the  fire  of  the  persecutor  in 
the  work  of  the  propagandist.  An  embarrassed  and  incor- 
rect speaker,  he  was  yet  eloquent  and  inexhaustible  before  a 
small  congregation,  though  timid  and  ineffectual  before  a 
large  assembly.  To  cultivated  Greeks  his  bizarre  style, 
moulded  on  Syrian  idiom,  was  barbarous  and  almost  unintel- 
ligible and  his  ideas  seemed  contemptible.  Like  other  ex- 
alted souls,  Paul  was  subject  to  ecstatic  visions,  which  he 
took  for  realities,  and  he  enjoyed  complete  faith  in  his  own 
power  of  performing  miracles  and  speaking  the  word  of 

"Z«e»  Apotres,  p.  169. 

393 


ERNEST  RENAN 

God;  yet  he  possessed  also  a  solid  fund  of  practical  good 
sense.  The  Apostle  to  the  Gentiles  was  indeed  a  product  of 
his  age  and  race,  admirably  suited  to  his  task,  as  his  task 
was  admirably  adapted  to  his  nature  and  his  powers. 

In  addition  to  the  leading  personages,  we  come  to  know, 
though  not  in  such  detail,  a  multitude  of  minor  characters — 
the  friendly  self-effacing  Barnabas,  the  gentle,  docile  Tim- 
othy, the  modest,  devoted  Luke,  and  a  host  of  others,  who 
are  transformed  from  mere  names  into  realities.  "Who  can 
forget,  for  example,  the  little  slave  Blandine,  timid  and 
feeble,  but  with  a  vigor  that  would  shame  an  athlete,  whose 
heroism  fatigued*  relay  after  relay  of  torturing  hangmen  ? 
But  beyond  such  individuals,  the  mass  itself  acquires  life — 
the  destitute  throng  in  the  Ghetto  at  Rome,  the  women  con- 
verts in  Macedonia,  the  motley  crowd  at  Corinth,  the  trade- 
unions  of  Bphesus.  Aquila  and  Priscilla,  vivified  from  a 
mere  mention  in  Paul's  epistles,  grow  into  types  of  the  name- 
less humble  folk  who  constituted  the  little  congregations  of 
apostolic  times,  and  from  insignificant  beginnings,  irresisti- 
bly carried  forward  the  destined  world  movement.  In  them- 
selves they  are  real  human  individuals,  and  at  the  same 
time  they  are  like  energetic  microbes  isolated  by  the  skill  of 
the  investigator  and  made  visible  by  his  microscope,  microbes 
that  will  multiply  beyond  computation,  till  they  undermine 
the  old  organism  and  establish  a  new  one  on  its  ruins.  Renan 
thus  avoids  the  extreme  view  that  history  is  nothing  but  the 
biography  of  great  men,  and  at  the  same  time  the  opposite 
view,  equally  false,  that  history  is  nothing  but  the  product 
of  mass  forces  in  which  great  men  are  merely  floating  straws 
that  indicate  the  current.  And  his  theory  on  this  matter  is 
embodied  in  an  artistic  product.  He  represents,  at  once  dis- 
tinctly and  completely,  both  the  potent  sweep  of  the  mass 
and  the  productive  energy  of  the  individuals,  whether  prom- 
inent or  obscure,  of  which  the  mass  is  composed. 

The  landscapes  are  hardly  less  admirable  than  the  por- 

394 


ORIGINS  OF  CHRISTIANITY 

traits.  The  background  is  always  sufficient  for  the  action. 
In  representing  the  sojourn  of  Jesus  and  the  path  traversed 
by  Paul,  Renan  drew  scenes  his  eyes  had  looked  upon,  but, 
when  necessary,  he  freshened  his  pictures  with  the  colors  of 
a  former  age.  "What  was,  is  imaginatively  substituted  for 
what  is.  Smiling  Galilee,  arid  Jerusalem,  vile  and  splendid 
Antioch,  the  gloomy  passes  of  Asian  mountains,  the  islands 
and  seacoast  towns  of  the  Mediterranean  are  presented  in 
such  intimate  aspects  as  must  have  greeted  the  Apostles. 
The  reality  of  the  setting  adds  to  the  reality  of  the  figures. 
Moreover,  sufficient  allowance  is  made  for  the  influence  of 
climate  upon  conduct,  of  physical  phenomena  upon  ideas; 
yet  here  too  Renan  avoids  extravagant  theory,  and  we  are 
made  aware  that  environment  is  only  one  of  the  varied  and 
complicated  forces  that  shape  the  man. 

The  Author's  own  experience  is  often  drawn  upon  to 
clarify  a  situation  or  enforce  a  contention.  The  blow  dealt 
to  constituted  authority  by  the  story  of  the  Passion  is  illus- 
trated by  the  pious  repulsion  felt  when  he  was  a  child  by  the 
people  of  Brittany  toward  the  police  as  representatives  of  the 
officials  who  arrested  Jesus.  The  vision  that  operated  Paul 's 
conversion  is  effectively  equated  with  Renan 's  own  halluci- 
nations in  fever  at  Byblos.  In  the  light  that  colors  the 
Apocalypse,  he  sees  the  yellow,  unnatural  tone,  the  dull  pal- 
lor that  he  noted  when,  on  May  25,  1871,  he  looked  down  on 
Paris  in  flames.  In  fact,  his  own  experiences  of  persons  and 
events  furnish  the  realizing  vitality,  not  only  of  touches  here 
and  there,  but  of  the  entire  conception  of  the  way  in  which 
incidents  happen  and  history  is  made. 

VI 

In  order  to  illuminate  situations  and  personalities  of  the 
dim  past,  R^nan  makes  liberal  use  of  historical  and  contem- 
porary comparisons.    The  biographies  of  Mahomet,  Buddha 

395 


ERNEST  RENAN 

and  Saint  Francis  show  how  the  stories  about  Jesus  came  to- 
gether. The  speeches  in  Acts  are  like  those  in  Thucydides, 
and  the  episode  of  Nicodemus  in  the  Fourth  Gospel  bears 
the  same  relation  to  the  real  Jesus  as  the  Dialogues  of  Plato 
bear  to  Socrates.  The  ornamental  buildings  in  Herod's 
Sebaste  form  an  insipid  rue  de  Bivoli,  and  this  is  what  Jesus 
had  in  mind  when  he  spoke  of  "the  kingdoms  of  the  world 
and  all  their  glory. ' '  John  the  Baptist  substituting  his  pri- 
vate baptismal  rite  for  the  legal  priestly  ceremonies  is  a  pre- 
cursor of  Jesus  in  the  same  sense  as  the  medieval  flagellants 
prepared  for  the  Reformation  by  taking  from  the  clergy 
their  monopoly  of  sacraments  and  absolution.  Saint  Paul 
in  the  Portico  at  Athens  is  like  a  humanitarian  socialist  de- 
claiming in  1869  against  English  prejudices  before  the  fel- 
lows of  Oxford.  The  narrow  church  at  Jerusalem  in  its 
action  against  the  disciples  of  Paul  was  like  nineteenth  cen- 
tury Rome  expelling  Lamennais,  Hermes,  Doellinger,  Pere 
Hyacinth,  all  her  successful  apologists;  and  the  benefits  to 
the  church  from  the  ruin  of  Jerusalem  were  as  great  as 
those  to  be  hoped  from  the  Italian  occupation  of  the  Papal 
City.  (Written  1873.)  Lamennais,  with  his  alternations 
of  unbridled  wrath  and  gentleness,  illustrates  John  the  Bap- 
tist, Jesus  himself,  and  several  saintly  but  violent  apostolic 
figures.  Lucian  is  "the  first  appearance  of  that  form  of 
human  genius  of  which  Voltaire  was  the  complete  incarna- 
tion." Such  comparisons,  though  objected  to  as  sometimes 
conveying  an  incorrect  impression,  or  as  sometimes  being 
based  on  subjects  of  fugitive  interest,  nevertheless  as  a  rule 
throw  a  flood  of  light  upon  the  author's  conceptions,  and 
often,  when  the  resemblances  are  based  on  the  law  of  recur- 
rent types  and  phenomena,  establish  what  may  be  called  a 
spiritual  connection  between  persons  and  between  occur- 
rences far  removed  from  one  another  in  time. 

Renan's  work,  indeed,  is  very  different  from  a  mere  ac- 
count of  men  and  events ;  the  story  is  always  connected  with 

396 


ORIGINS  OF  CHRISTIANITY 

the  deeper  purpose  of  things.  You  may  use  the  label  "Hegel- 
ian ' '  if  you  choose,  but  the  conception  really  has  no  individ- 
ual owner,  and  moreover,  Renan  's  mode  of  treatment  is  con- 
crete, rather  than  metaphysical.  In  such  matters  logic  will 
lead  the  thinker  astray.  "What  is  requisite  is  the  intuition  of 
a  rich  and  sympathetic  mind.  Here  again  we  perceive  the 
artist,  for  the  ideas  in  which  the  history  abounds  are,  as 
truly  as  the  persons  and  places,  not  methodically  constructed 
systems,  but  what  the  author  sees. 

These  ideas  are  naturally  identical  with  those  expressed  in 
his  critical  and  philosophical  essays,  but  they  gain  a  special 
flavor  from  their  connection  with  the  various  aspects  of  his 
theme.  Each  incident  fits  into  a  general  framework  of 
theory  and  suggests  reflections.  In  general,  Renan  estimates 
men  and  movements  according  to  a  scale  of  values  at  the 
summit  of  which  is  the  ideal  and  at  the  bottom  the  material. 
The  intermediate  degrees  are  never  mathematically  fixed, 
but  their  interrelations  are  for  the  most  part  fairly  stable. 
The  highest  quality  of  the  ideal  as  manifested  in  human  life 
is  the  good,  and  only  a  little  below  float  the  true  and  the 
beautiful,  which  are  also  divine.  A  complete  devotion  to 
these  qualities  marks  the  highest  efforts  of  the  human  spirit; 
and  here  Jesus  is  supreme.  The  great  mass  of  humanity, 
however,  are  given  largely  to  the  material.  Nevertheless, 
within  this  mass,  the  divine  mysteriously  moves  and  oper- 
ates, evolving  popular  ideal  creations,  the  only  ones  that  are 
stable  and  effective,  yet  which  inevitably  bear  the  marks  of 
their  lowly  origin  in  the  crudeness  of  their  forms  and  sym- 
bols, admirable  so  far  as  these  express  the  ideal,  defective 
and  often  obnoxious  so  far  as  they  represent  the  material. 
Furthermore,  these  ideals  sometimes  seem  to  work  themselves 
out  spontaneously;  at  other  times  the  inert  mass  has  to  be 
attacked  by  violence,  the  task  of  men  of  action,  of  propa- 
gandists (Saint  Paul).  But  this  propaganda  induces  com- 
promises by  which  truth  and  virtue  are  distorted.    The  pur- 

397 


ERNEST  RENAN 

est  manifestations  of  the  ideal,  therefore,  are  not  found  in 
the  dust  and  heat  of  conflict,  but  in  those  lofty  regions  of  the 
mind  inhabited  by  philosophers  and  saints,  who  devote  them-- 
selves  in  godlike  equanimity  to  elevated  thoughts,  with  no 
regard  to  any  practical  effect  these  may  have  upon  the  ac- 
tions or  beliefs  of  mankind  (Marcus  Aurelius).  Here  alone 
is  to  be  attained  perfect  liberty  of  soul;  but  poor  human 
nature  finds  the  atmosphere  too  rarefied  for  its  daily  life. 
Man  is  bound  by  the  conditions  of  existence  and  can  only 
obtain  glimpses  of  the  divine.  Our  faculties  permit  us  only 
to  approach,  never  to  grasp,  the  mysteries  of  creation,  and 
our  language,  our  modes  of  action,  our  institutions,  every- 
thing we  do  and  are,  must  suffer  the  hindering  imperfection. 
The  idea  partakes  of  the  infinite ;  that  is  its  glory.  And  of 
all  men,  Jesus  was  the  one  most  completely  dominated  by  the 
idea.  * '  His  perfect  idealism  is  the  highest  rule  of  a  detached 
and  virtuous  life.  He  created  the  heaven  of  pure  souls, 
where  is  found  what  is  sought  in  vain  on  earth,  the  perfect 
nobility  of  the  children  of  God,  consummate  saintliness,  total 
abstraction  from  the  defilement  of  the  world,  liberty,  in  fine, 
which  actual  society  excludes  as  an  impossibility  and  which 
has  its  full  amplitude  only  in  the  domain  of  thought. "  ^*  To 
worship  the  Father  in  spirit  and  in  truth  is  for  him  true  re- 
ligion. *  *  Devoted  without  reserve  to  his  idea,  he  so  subordi- 
nated everything  to  it  that  the  universe  no  longer  existed  for 
him."  ^'^  Despising  the  earth  he  took  refuge  in  his  own  king- 
dom, and  established  "that  grand  doctrine  of  transcendent 
disdain,  true  doctrine  of  the  liberty  of  the  soul,  that  alone 
gives  peace. ' '  ^®  Among  his  disciples,  the  resurrection  was 
the  triumph  of  the  idea  over  the  actual.  What  is  the  body, 
once  the  idea  enters  upon  its  immortality  ?  Love  for  Jesus 
lived  on,  the  vital  force  that  made  and  sustained  the  Church, 

*♦  Vie,  p.  461. 
«  Vie,  p.  476. 
"  Vie,  p.  124. 

398 


ORIGINS  OF  CHRISTIANITY 

with  its  "sublime  contempt  for  reality,"  "a  refuge  for  souls 
under  the  empire  of  brutal  force. ' '  The  very  brutalities,  in- 
deed, of  Roman  imperialism  aroused  a  more  flaming  ardor 
and  demonstrated  the  * '  eternal  puerility  of  penal  repression 
applied  to  things  of  the  soul."  *^ 

But  materialism,  egotism,  bourgeois  vulgarity  and  brutal 
force  are  not  the  sole  hostile  influences.  The  idea  partakes 
of  the  infinite :  to  limit  it  is  to  do  it  harm.  Embodied,  it  is 
no  longer  the  pure  idea ;  it  is  perverted  by  an  alien  compan- 
ionship. Dogma  binds  and  tortures  it  into  material  shapes, 
in  which  it  is  fitted  indeed  to  do  battle  with  other  material 
shapes,  but  in  which  its  true  nature  is  obscured.  To  approx- 
imate this  true  nature,  it  must  take  on  contradictory  forms, 
none  of  which  may  be  regarded  as  absolute,  but  all  of  which 
have  their  utility.  ' '  When  one  has  come  to  know  the  Heav- 
enly Father,  adored  in  spirit  and  in  truth,  one  is  no  longer 
of  any  sect,  of  any  particular  religion,  of  any  school.  One  is 
of  true  religion;  all  practices  become  indifferent;  they  are 
not  despised,  for  they  are  symbols  that  have  been  or  still  are 
respectable;  but  one  ceases  to  lend  them  any  intrinsic  vir- 
tue. "  ^^  In  the  moral  and  the  religious  order,  it  is  further- 
more indispensable  to  believe  without  demonstration.  Here 
not  certitude,  but  faith  is  requisite.  ""What  need  have  we 
of  those  brutal  proofs  that  have  their  application  only  in  the 
gross  order  of  fact,  and  which  would  hamper  our  liberty. ' '  ^' 

There  is  an  inexorable  law  that  condemns  the  idea  to 
abasement  as  soon  as  it  seeks  to  convert  men.  Their  touch 
degrades  it  to  their  own  level;  their  fanaticism  distorts  it. 
Even  Jesus  did  not  escape  this  fatality.  Crowds  have  never 
been  charmed  or  roused  by  pure  truth.  For  the  accomplish- 
ment of  a  great  revolution  rough  methods  are  needed,  fixed 
ideas,  prejudice,  dogmatism,  not  reason.     It  is  the  force  of 

"  Le9  Apotres,  p.   136. 
"/Saint  Paul,  p.  167. 
^  UoTC-Awrele,  p.  265. 

899 


ERNEST  RENAN 

fanaticism,  not  intelligence  and  tolerance,  that  leads  men  to 
die  for  an  opinion;  and  amid  opposing  fanaticisms,  liberal 
spirits  have  no  chance  of  success.  Not  to  philosophers,  but 
to  zealots  belonged  the  future  of  the  Roman  world.  With 
success,  too,  the  early  enthusiasm  cooled.  The  mass  was 
moved,  but  the  forces  that  moved  it  were  largely  spent  in  the 
effort.  Propaganda  is  carried  on  by  means  of  rigid  doctrine 
and  absolute  faith,  but  it  is  only  by  making  concessions  that 
the  resulting  institution  can  live  in  the  general  current.  It 
must  assimilate  itself  to  its  environment ;  to  secure  its  wider 
triumph,  it  must  sacrifice  ideas,  even  principles.  "It  hap- 
pened to  Christianity,  as  almost  always  in  human  affairs;  it 
succeeded  when  it  had  commenced  morally  to  decline ;  it  was 
made  official  when  it  had  become  but  a  remnant  of  itself ;  it 
acquired  vogue  when  its  true  period  of  originality  and  youth 
was  past. ' '  ^°  Pagan  superstition  became  the  substratum  of 
many  rites.  Crowds  entering  the  little  Church  brought  their 
imperfections  to  soil  its  purity  and  transformed  its  simple 
faith  to  fit  the  needs  of  their  alien  imaginations  and  their 
more  worldly  hearts.  Then  the  Church,  of  necessity,  gave 
birth  to  the  convent,  where  souls  could  dwell  detached  from 
earth.  "When  entire  countries  became  Christian,  the  rule 
prevailing  in  the  first  churches  became  a  Utopia  and  took 
refuge  in  monasteries.  In  this  sense,  monastic  life  is  the  con- 
tinuation of  the  primitive  churches.  The  convent  is  the  nec- 
essary consequence  of  the  Christian  spirit.  There  is  no  per- 
fect Christianity  without  the  convent  since  the  evangelical 
ideal  can  be  realized  only  there. ' '  ^^ 

Yet,  while  religion  is  degraded  by  the  people,  it  is  itself  a 
popular  creation  responding  to  a  human  need,  a  great  in- 
stinctive truth,  though  mingled  with  illusions  and  chimeras, 
seen  and  expressed  by  the  mass  of  men.  All  humanity  col- 
laborated in  Christianity.     "In  these  popular  movements, 


'"Saint  Paul,  p.  273. 
*^Les  Apotres,  p.  128. 


400 


ORIGINS  OF  CHRISTIANITY 

the  part  of  each  is  impossible  to  discern ;  it  is  the  sentiment 
of  all  that  constitutes  the  true  creative  genius. ' '  ^^  Even  the 
Jesus  of  the  Evangelists  is  not  what  he  actually  was,  but 
what  he  was  thought  to  be.  Yet  Renan  has  too  direct  and 
lucid  a  mind  to  leave  his  readers  with  any  hazy,  romantic 
concept  of  the  folk.  "Legends,  myths,  popular  songs,  prov- 
erbs, historic  jests,  characteristic  party  calumnies,  all  this  is 
the  work  of  that  great  impostor,  the  crowd.  Surely  each 
legend,  each  proverb,  each  witty  jest,  has  a  father,  but  an  un- 
known father.  Some  one  speaks  the  jest,  a  thousand  repeat 
it,  perfect  it,  refine  it,  sharpen  it ;  even  he  who  said  it  was, 
in  speaking,  but  the  interpreter  of  aU. ' '  ^^  Such  things, 
moreover,  as  well  as  the  more  important  contributions  to  the 
human  spirit,  do  not  grow  mysteriously  out  of  vast  abstract 
societies;  they  spring  from  little  centers  where  individuals 
are  closely  crowded  one  against  the  other.  Propagated  from 
center  to  center,  the  force  of  tiie  humble  and  the  nameless 
grows  unseen  to  an  irresistible  wave  that  wrecks  the  most 
splendid  structures  of  pride  and  power,  and  substitutes  an 
edifice  unconsciously  reared  by  these  obscure  agents.  Thus 
came  about  the  fall  of  the  Empire  and  the  rise  of  the  Church. 
* '  Sprung  from  the  hardy  afiirmation  of  a  man  of  the  people, 
spread  before  the  people,  first  loved  and  admired  by  the  peo- 
ple, Christianity  was  impressed  with  an  original  character 
which  will  never  be  effaced.  It  was  the  first  triumph  of  the 
Revolution,  the  victory  of  popular  sentiment,  the  advent  of 
the  simple  hearted,  the  inauguration  of  the  beautiful  accord- 
ing to  the  people.  Jesus  thus  opened  in  the  aristocratic 
society  of  antiquity  the  breach  through  which  everything 
will  henceforth  flow. ' '  2*  No  impression  left  by  the  book  is 
more  vivid  than  that  of  the  aggregate  force  of  fermenting 
humanity. 

^^L' Antichrist,  p.  371. 
^  Lea  tvangUes,  p.  93, 
**  Vie,  p.  456. 

401 


ERNEST  RENAN 

Not  every  period,  however,  is  adapted  to  the  effective  pro- 
pagation of  great  movements.  The  soil  must  be  prepared  for 
the  seed,  the  seed  itself  must  be  ripe  for  germination,  and  the 
surrounding  conditions  must  be  propitious  for  the  particular 
kind  of  growth  that  is  to  flourish.  **Each  branch  of  the  de- 
velopment of  humanity — art,  poetry,  religion — finds  in  tra- 
versing the  ages  a  privileged  epoch  in  which  it  attains  per- 
fection without  effort  and  by  virtue  of  a  sort  of  spontaneous 
instinct.  No  labor  of  reflection  succeeds  afterwards  in  pro- 
ducing those  masterpieces  that  nature  creates  in  such  mo- 
ments by  inspired  genius. "  ^^  It  seems  as  though  there  were 
a  sort  of  world  mind,  in  which  at  the  right  moment  arise 
certain  inevitable  thoughts,  thoughts  that  are  propagated 
almost  like  an  epidemic,  crossing  frontiers  and  sweeping  over 
the  barriers  between  antagonistic  races.  It  was  for  religion 
that  the  world  was  ready  in  the  first  and  second  centuries  of 
our  era.  The  spread  of  Christianity  was  no  miracle ;  the  con- 
version of  the  world  was,  in  fact,  inevitable.  The  political, 
social,  moral,  intellectual  and  religious  condition  of  the 
Roman  Empire  furnished  the  fertile  soil  and  the  salutary 
climate ;  the  preaching  of  the  Hebrew  prophets  culminating 
in  Jesus  furnished  the  procreant  seed.  The  period  Renan 
treats,  instead  of  being  one  of  settled  order,  where  the  move- 
ment of  life  is  regular  and  formal,  is  one  in  which  the  hidden 
forces  that  humanity  holds  in  reserve  are  set  free.  Among 
these  forces  are  even  extravagance,  hysteria,  hallucination, 
states  of  nervous  exaltation  that  sober  reason  calls  insane; 
equilibrium  is  upset;  for  violence,  by  a  law  of  nature,  is 
essential  to  creation.  Man's  will  seems  insignificant;  he  acts 
as  by  some  vaster  power.  * '  Everything  favors  those  who  are 
marked  by  a  sign;  they  hasten  to  glory  as  by  a  sort  of  in- 
vincible and  fatal  impetus. ' '  ^® 

The  same  sort  of  fatality  hangs  over  nations  that  bear  a 


»Fte,  p.  472. 
»•  Vie,  p.  473, 


403 


ORIGINS  OF  CHRISTIANITY 

gift  to  humanity.  The  sacred  fire  cannot  be  carried  with 
impunity.  The  choice  lies  between  tranquil  obscurity,  and  a 
troubled,  stormy  career  ending  in  extinction  or  servitude. 
Every  country  that  dreams  of  a  kingdom  of  God,  that  pur- 
sues a  work  of  universal  benefit,  sacrifices  its  individual  des- 
tiny. The  vocation  that  ruined  the  Jews  was  their  contribu- 
tion to  the  general  fabric  of  civilization.  So  it  was  also  with 
Greece.  "Land  of  miracles,  like  Judea  and  Sinai,  Greece 
flowered  once,  but  is  not  susceptible  of  blooming  again ;  she 
created  something  unique,  which  cannot  be  renewed ;  it  seems 
that,  when  God  has  shown  himself  in  a  country,  he  dries  it 
up  forever. ' '  Such  a  fate  is  the  result  of  the  law  of  compen- 
sation, which  applies  no  less  to  nations  and  to  ideas  than  to 
individuals.  "The  religious  inferiority  of  the  Greeks  and 
Romans  was  the  consequence  of  their  political  and  intellect- 
ual superiority.  The  religious  superiority  of  the  Jews,  on 
the  contrary,  was  the  cause  of  their  political  and  philoso- 
phical inferiority. ' ' "  Contradictory  destinies  are  impossi- 
ble; every  excellence  is  expiated  by  some  defect;  and  the 
more  resplendent  the  excellence,  the  more  fatal  will  be  the 
defect.  Judea,  Greece,  Italy,  each  has  suffered  for  its  gift  to 
humanity ;  will  the  same  Nemesis  overtake  France  ?  ^' 

Such  are  some  of  the  more  important  general  ideas  em- 
bodied in  the  narrative.  They  seem,  not  like  philosophy  de- 
duced from  the  facts  or  applied  to  the  facts,  but  rather  like 
a  part  of  the  facts  themselves.  For  while  the  Origins  of 
Christiamty  deals  with  men  as  the  chief  agents  in  the  strug- 
gle, we  still  feel  as  though  ideas  were  the  real  contestants, 
somewhat  as  the  Olympian  Gods  determined  the  outcome  of 
the  battles  on  the  fields  of  Troy.  It  is  an  artistic  triumph  to 
have  presented  this  divine  participation,  without  shock  to 

"  Les  Apotres,  p.  364. 

*L' Antichrist,  p.  542.  All  these  general  ideas  may  be  found 
in  the  Conferences  d'Angleterre,  which  consists  of  nothing  but  selec- 
tions repeated  verbally  from  Les  Origines  du  christianisme,  with  in- 
troductory and  concluding  remarks. 

403 


ERNEST  RENAN 

the  best  critical  and  scientific  scholarship,  under  an  aspect 
so  completely  in  accord  with  modern  spirit. 

VII 

There  are,  in  addition,  many  remarks  of  a  different  type, 
generally  reflections  suggested  by  the  narrative.  These  are 
often  most  interesting,  both  in  themselves,  and  as  a  revela- 
tion of  the  author's  mental  personality.  It  would  be  rash 
to  affirm  that  they  are  all  true,  or  even  consequent  or  consis- 
tent. They  are  obiter  dicta,  and  are  therefore  not  to  be  cited 
as  authoritative.  A  brief  disconnected  collection,  by  no 
means  pretending  to  be  exhaustive  in  any  direction,  will  give 
some  notion  of  the  riches  of  this  sort  intermingled  with  the 
more  essential  matter. 

"Christianity"  has  thus  become  almost  synonymous  with  "re- 
ligion." All  that  may  be  done  outside  of  this  great  and  good 
Christian  tradition  will  be  sterile.  Jesus  founded  human  religion, 
as  Socrates  founded  philosophy  and  Aristotle  science.  There  was 
philosophy  before  Socrates  and  science  before  Aristotle.  Since 
Socrates  and  Aristotle  philosophy  and  science  have  made  immense 
progress;  but  all  is  built  on  the  foundations  they  laid.  Similarly, 
before  Jesus,  religious  thought  had  passed  through  many  revo- 
lutions; since  Jesus,  it  has  made  vast  conquests.  Nevertheless,  we 
have  not  issued,  we  never  shall  issue,  from  the  essential  idea  that 
Jesus  created;  he  has  fixed  forever  the  necessary  manner  of  con- 
ceiving pure  worship.  The  religion  of  Jesus  is  not  limited.  The 
Church  has  had  its  epochs  and  its  phases;  it  has  shut  itself  within 
symbols  which  have  been  or  will  be  transitory:  Jesus  founded 
absolute  religion,  without  exclusion,  and  fixing  nothing  but  re- 
ligious feeling.  His  symbols  are  not  settled  dogmas;  they  are 
images  susceptible  of  vmlimited  interpretation.  In  the  Gospel  a 
theological  proposition  would  be  sought  in  vain.  All  professions 
of  faith  are  travesties  of  the  ideas  of  Jesus,  resembling  the  way 
in  which  medieval  scholasticism,  in  proclaiming  Aristotle  the  unique 
master  of  a  completed  science,  falsified  his  mode  of  thinking.  IJad 
Aristotle  been  present  at  scholastic  debates,  he  would  have  repudi- 
ated such  narrow  doctrines;  he  would  have  taken  the  part  of 

404 


ORIGINS  OF  CHRISTIANITY 

progressive  science  against  the  routine  that  clothed  itself  with  his 
authority;  he  would  have  applauded  its  antagonists.  In  the  same 
way,  if  Jesus  could  return  among  us,  he  would  recognize  as  dis- 
ciples, not  those  who  pretend  to  shut  him  up  wholly  in  a  few 
phrases  of  the  catechism,  but  those  who  labor  to  perpetuate  his 
spirit.  In  all  orders  of  greatness,  the  lasting  glory  is  to  have 
laid  the  first  stone.  Possibly  in  modem  works  on  physics  and 
meteorology  there  is  not  a  word  from  Aristotle's  treatises  with 
such  titles;  none  the  less  Aristotle  remains  the  founder  of  natural 
science.  Whatever  may  be  the  transformations  of  dogma,  Jesus 
will  remain  the  creator  of  pure  religious  feeling;  the  Sermon  on 
the  Mount  will  not  be  outstripped.  No  revolution  can  detach  us 
in  religion  from  the  great  moral  and  intellectual  family,  at  the 
head  of  which  shines  the  name  of  Jesus.  In  this  sense,  we  are 
Christians,  even  when  separated  on  almost  every  point  from  the 
Christian  tradition  that  has  gone  before  us. 

Vie  de  Jesus,  pp.  462,  463. 

All  that  it  is  permitted  to  say  is  that,  during  his  last  days,  the 
enormous  weight  of  the  mission  he  had  accepted  weighed  cruelly 
upon  Jesus.  Human  nature  was  for  a  moment  reawakened.  Per- 
haps he  came  to  doubt  his  work.  Fear,  hesitation,  took  possession 
of  him  and  cast  him  into  an  infirmity  worse  than  death.  The  man 
who  to  a  great  work  has  sacrificed  his  repose  and  the  legitimate 
recompenses  of  life,  always  makes  a  sad  return  upon  himself 
when  the  image  of  death  presents  itself  to  him  for  the  first  time 
and  seeks  to  persuade  him  that  all  is  vain.  Perhaps  some  of 
those  touching  recollections  cherished  by  the  strongest  souls  and 
at  certain  times  piercing  them  like  a  sword,  came  to  him  at  this 
moment.  Did  he  remember  the  clear  fountains  of  Galilee,  where 
he  could  have  had  refreshment;  the  vine  and  the  fig  tree  under 
which  he  might  have  been  seated;  the  maidens  who  perhaps  might 
have  consented  to  love  him?  Did  he  execrate  his  bitter  destiny 
that  had  forbidden  him  the  joys  conceded  to  all  others?  Did  he 
regret  his  too  lofty  nature  and,  victim  of  his  greatness,  did  he 
weep  that  he  had  not  remained  a  simple  artisan  of  Nazareth? 

Vie,  p.  391. 

If  we  were  dealing  with  another  nature  and  another  race,  we 
should  try  to  imagine  Paul,  in  his  last  days,  coming  to  recognize 
that  he  had  spent  bis  life  for  a  dream,  repudiating  all  the  holy 

405 


ERNEST  RENAN 

prophets  for  a  book  he  had  never  read  till  then,  Ecclesiastes 
(charming  book,  the  only  agreeable  book  ever  composed  by  a 
Jew),  and  proclaiming  that  the  happy  man  is  he  who,  after  pass- 
ing his  life  in  joy  till  his  old  age  with  the  wife  of  his  youth,  dies 
without  having  lost  a  son.  It  is  a  characteristic  trait  of  great 
Europeans  to  give  adhesion  at  certain  times  to  Epicurus,  to  be 
seized  with  disgust  although  still  laboring  ardently,  and  after 
having  succeeded,  to  doubt  if  the  cause  they  have  served  was 
after  all  worth  so  many  sacrifices.  Many  dare  to  confess  in  the 
very  heat  of  action,  that  the  day  a  man  begins  to  be  wise  is  the 
day  on  which,  delivered  from  all  care,  he  contemplates  and  en- 
joys nature.  Few  at  least  escape  tardy  regrets.  There  is  no 
consecrated  person,  priest  or  nun,  who  at  fifty  does  not  bewail 
his  vow,  and  nevertheless  persevere  in  it.  We  do  not  understand 
the  worthy  gentleman  who  is  without  a  trace  of  skepticism;  we 
like  to  have  the  virtuous  man  say  now  and  then,  "Virtue,  thou 
art  but  a  word"  j  for  he  who  is  too  sure  that  virtue  will  be  rewarded 
has  not  much  merit;  his  good  actions  seem  no  more  than  a 
profitable  investment.  Jesus  was  not  a  stranger  to  this  delicate 
sentiment;  more  than  once  his  divine  role  seemed  to  weigh  upon 
him.  Surely  it  was  not  so  with  Saint  Paul;  he  had  no  agony 
of  Gethsemane,  and  this  is  one  of  the  reasons  why  to  us  he  is  less 
attractive. 

L'Antechrist,  pp.  101,  102. 

In  a  sense,  all  of  us,  in  so  much  as  we  are  scholars,  artists, 
priests,  laborers  at  disinterested  tasks,  have  still  the  right  to 
call  ourselves  ehyonim.  The  friend  of  the  true,  the  beautiful  and 
the  good  never  admits  that  he  receives  pay.  The  things  of  the 
soul  have  no  price;  to  the  scholar  who  enlightens  it,  to  the  priest 
who  improves  its  morals,  to  the  poet  and  the  artist  who  charm  it, 
humanity  never  gives  more  than  an  alms,  totally  disproportionate 
to  what  it  has  received.  He  who  sells  the  ideal  and  considers 
himself  paid  for  what  he  has  delivered  is  humble  indeed.  The 
proud  Ebyon,  who  thinks  the  kingdom  of  God  his,  sees  in  the 
portion  that  falls  to  his  share  here  below  not  a  salary,  but  the 
penny  put  into  the  hand  of  a  mendicant. 

Les  ^vangiles,  p.  74. 

When  modem  individualism  has  borne  its  last  fruits;  when  hu- 
manity, dwindled  and  saddened,  becomes  impotent  and  returns  to 
great  institutions  and  vigorous  disciplines;  when  our  contempti- 

406 


ORIGINS  OF  CHRISTIANITY 

ble  boui^ois  society,  or  rather,  our  world  of  pygmies,  has  been 
whipped  away  by  the  heroic  and  ideal  among  human  beings,  then 
a  life  in  common  will  resume  all  its  value.  A  mass  of  great 
matters,  such  as  science,  will  be  organized  in  monastic  form, 
hereditary  though  not  through  blood.  The  importance  our  age 
attributes  to  the  family  will  diminish.  Egotism,  the  essential 
law  of  civil  society,  will  not  suffice  for  great  souls.  All,  gather- 
ing together  from  the  most  opposite  points,  will  be  leagued  against 
vulgarity.  A  real  sense  will  then  be  found  in  the  words  of  Jesus 
and  the  ideas  of  the  Middle  Ages  on  poverty.  We  shall  comprehend 
that  possessions  may  be  considered  a  point  of  inferiority. 

Les  Apotres,  p.  132. 

Philosophy  had  seen  all,  expressed  all,  in  attractive  language; 
but  these  ideas  needed  to  be  spoken  in  popular,  that  is  to  say, 
in  religious  form.  Religious  movements  are  made  only  by  priests. 
Philosophy  had  too  much  reason.  The  recompense  she  offered  was 
not  tangible  enough.  The  poor,  the  uneducated,  who  could  not 
approach  her,  were  in  reality  without  religion,  without  hope- 
Man  is  such  a  bom  mediocrity  that  he  is  good  only  when  he 
dreams.  He  needs  illusions  in  order  to  do  at  all  what  he  ought  to 
do  for  the  love  of  goodness.  To  accomplish  his  duty,  this  slave 
has  need  of  fear  and  lies.  Sacrifices  are  obtained  from  the  masses 
only  by  promises  of  pay.  Christian  abnegation  is,  after  all,  only 
a  clever  calculation,  an  investment  in  the  kingdom  of  God. 

Marc-Aurele,  pp.  566,  567. 

The  anaesthesia  of  Blandine,  her  intimate  conversations  with 
Christ  while  the  bull  tossed  her  in  the  air,  the  hallucination  of 
the  martyrs,  who  believed  they  saw  Jesus  in  the  person  of  their 
sister  at  the  end  of  the  arena  bound  naked  to  the  stake, — all 
this  legend,  which  on  the  one  side  carries  you  beyond  Stoicism 
and  on  the  other  touches  on  catalepsy  and  the  experiences  of 
la  Salpetriere,  seems  a  subject  expressly  made  for  those  poets, 
painters,  thinkers,  all  original,  all  idealists,  who  imagine  they 
paint  only  the  soul,  but  in  reality  are  duped  by  the  body.  Epiete- 
tus  did  better;  he  showed  in  the  battle  of  life  as  much  heroism 
as  Attala  and  Sanctus;  but  he  has  no  legend.  The  Hegemonikon 
by  itself  says  nothing  to  humanity.  Man  is  a  very  complex  being. 
Crowds  have  never  been  charmed  or  moved  by  pure  truth ;  a  great 
man  has  never  been  made  of  a  eunuch,  nor  a  romance  without  love. 

L'^glise  Chretienne,  pp.  476,  477. 
407 


ERNEST  RENAN 

At  each  tack  they  approached  that  holy  land,  where  perfection 
once  unveiled  itself,  where  the  ideal  really  existed,  that  land 
which  saw  the  noblest  of  races  found  at  one  time  art,  science, 
philosophy,  politics.  Without  doubt  Paul  did  not  experience  that 
filial  sentiment  which  cultivated  men  then  felt  on  touching  that 
venerable  soil.  He  was  of  another  world;  his  holy  land  was 
elsewhere. 

Saint  Paul,  p.  167. 

Such  marvels  little  touched  the  Apostle;  he  saw  the  only  perfect 
objects  that  have  ever  existed,  that  ever  will  exist,  the  Propylaea, 
that  masterpiece  of  nobility,  the  Parthenon,  which  crushes  all 
grandeur  other  than  its  own,  the  temple  of  the  Wingless  Victory, 
worthy  of  the  battles  it  consecrated,  the  Erectheum,  prodigy  of 
elegance  and  refinement,  the  Errhephori,  those  divine  maidens, 
with  a  bearing  so  full  of  grace;  he  saw  all  this  and  his  faith  was 
not  shaken;  he  did  not  tremble.  The  prejudices  of  the  iconoclastic 
Jew,  insensible  to  plastic  beauty,  blinded  him;  he  took  these  in- 
comparable statues  for  idols.  "His  spirit,"  says  his  biographer, 
"was  embittered,  when  he  saw  the  city  filled  with  idols."  Ah  I 
beautiful  and  chaste  figures,  true  gods  and  goddesses,  tremble; 
here  is  he  who  will  raise  the  hammer  against  you.  The  fatal 
word  is  pronounced:  you  are  idols;  the  error  of  this  ugly  little 
Jew  will  be  your  sentence  of  death. 

Saint  Paul,  p.  172. 

The  fault  of  Christianity  here  appears.  It  is  too  entirely  moral ; 
with  it  beauty  is  entirely  sacrificed.  Now,  in  the  eyes  of  a  com- 
plete philosophy,  beauty,  far  from  being  a  superficial  advantage, 
a  danger,  an  unfitness,  is  a  gift  of  God,  as  virtue  is.  It  equals 
virtue;  a  beautiful  woman  shows  one  face  of  the  divine  purpose, 
one  of  the  ends  of  God,  just  as  much  as  the  man  of  genius  or 
the  virtuous  woman.  She  feels  this,  hence  her  pride.  She  feels 
instinctively  the  infinite  treasure  she  possesses  in  her  body;  she 
feels  indeed  that,  without  wit,  without  talent,  without  much 
virtue,  she  counts  among  the  highest  manifestations  of  God.  And 
why  forbid  her  to  put  into  effect  the  gift  she  has  received,  to  set 
the  diamond  fallen  to  her  lot?  In  ornamenting  herself,  woman 
fulfills  a  duty;  she  practices  an  art,  an  exquisite  art,  in  one  sense 
the  most  charming  of  the  arts.  Let  us  not  be  led  astray  by  the 
smile  that  certain  words  provoke  among  the  frivolous.  The 
palm  of  genius  was  awarded  to  the  Greek  artist  who  was  able  to 

408 


ORIGINS  OF  CHRISTIANITY 

solve  the  most  delicate  of  problems,  to  adorn  the  human  body, 
that  is  to  say,  to  adorn  perfection  itself,  and  we,  for  our  part, 
can  see  nothing  but  a  matter  of  rags  in  an  attempt  to  collaborate 
in  the  fairest  work  of  God,  the  beauty  of  woman.  Woman's 
toilette,  with  all  its  refinements,  belongs  in  its  way  among  the 
high  arts. 

Marc-Aurele,  pp.  554,  555. 

The  Roman  police  was  not  very  hostile  to  him;  but  they  acted 
in  these  circumstances  according  to  the  habitual  principles  of  the 
police.  As  soon  as  there  was  trouble  in  the  street,  they  con- 
sidered every  one  a  disturber  and,  without  disquieting  themselves 
about  the  rights  of  the  person  who  had  been  made  a  pretext  for 
the  agitation,  they  ordered  him  to  be  quiet  or  to  depart.  At  bot- 
tom, this  is  to  justify  the  riot  and  to  establish  the  principle  that 
a  few  fanatics  can  deprive  a  citizen  of  his  freedom. 

Saint  Paul,  p.  164. 
I 

One  of  the  things  that  most  flatters  the  vanity  of  fashionable 
people  who  occupy  themselves  a  little  with  art  or  literature  is  to 
imagine  that,  if  they  were  poor,  they  could  earn  a  living  with 
their  talent. 

L'Antechrist,  p.  303. 

A  prince  is  a  soldier;  a  great  prince  can  and  ought  to  patronize 
literature;  he  ought  not  to  be  a  literary  man.  Augustus,  Louis 
XrV,  presiding  over  a  brilliant  intellectual  development,  are,  after 
the  cities  of  genius  like  Athens  and  Florence,  the  noblest  specta- 
cle of  history;  Nero,  Chilperic,  King  Louis  of  Bavaria  are  cari- 
catures. 

L'Antechrist,  p.  315. 

Honor  to  him  who  suffers  for  a  cause!  Progress,  I  hope,  will 
bring  about  the  day  when  those  vast  structures  that  modern  Catholi- 
cism has  imprudently  erected  on  the  heights  of  Montmartre  and 
Fourvieres,  shall  become  temples  of  the  supreme  Amnesty,  and 
shall  contain  a  chapel  for  all  causes,  for  all  victims,  for  all  mar- 
tyrs. 

Marc-Aurele,  p.  344. 

Saint  Paul's  principle :  "Every  authority,  whatever  it  be,  comes 
from  Grod,"  bore  its  fruit,  and, — a  thing  that  Jesus  had  not  in 

409 


ERNEST  RENAN 

the  least  foreseen, — the  Gospel  became  one  of  the  foundations 
of  absolutism.  Christ  had  come  on  earth  to  guarantee  princes 
their  crowns.  In  our  day  does  not  a  Roman  pontiff  try  to  prove 
that  Jesus  Christ  preached  and  died  to  preserve  the  fortunes  of 
the  rich  and  to  reassure  capital? 

L'J^glise  Chretienne,  p.  v. 

Throughout  the  work  one  of  the  most  persistent  of  the 
modern  topics  is  socialism.  The  anarchistic  tendencies  of 
Jewish  fanaticism,  recognizing  no  law  but  the  will  of  God, 
and  the  antipatriotic  communism  of  the  early  churches, 
defying  the  imperial  law  against  associations,  naturally  sug- 
gest reflections  on  popular  labor  movements  of  the  day.  Here 
Renan's  judgment  seems  politically  sound.  "Institutions 
founded  on  communism,"  he  says,  "have  a  brilliant  begin- 
ning, for  communism  always  presupposes  great  exaltation, 
but  they  degenerate  rapidly,  communism  being  contrary  to 
human  nature. "  ^^  In  fact,  no  basis  other  than  religion  will 
suffice  to  sustain  so  much  self-denial.  "It  is  clear  that  an 
association  in  which  the  dividends  are  according  to  the  needs 
of  each,  and  not  according  to  the  capital  contributed,  can 
repose  only  on  exalted  abnegation  and  on  ardent  faith  in  a 
religious  ideal. ' '  ^°  Socialism,  too,  with  its  dream  of  an  ideal 
organization  of  society,  presents  analogies  with  the  primitive 
Christian  sects.  It  is  doomed  to  failure,  however,  because  it 
is  besmirched  with  gross  materialism.  To  found  universal 
happiness  on  political  and  economic  measures  is  an  impossi- 
ble aspiration.  The  great  need  now,  as  under  the  Roman 
Empire,  is  the  small  fraternal  organization  that  gives  con- 
solation, affords  social  pleasures  and  appeals  to  the  heart.  It 
is  in  fact  noteworthy  that  the  great  history  concludes,  after 
an  eloquent  peroration,  with  the  astonishingly  unexpected 
sentence:  "During  two  hundred  years,  Christianity  gave 
consummate  models  of  these  little  free  reunions. ' ' 

"Les  Apotres,  p.  242. 
">Ibid.,  p.  118. 

410 


ORIGINS  OF  CHRISTIANITY 

VIII 

This  peculiar  ending  suggests  a  few  observations  about  the 
style  employed  in  the  work.  To  say  that  the  reader  rarely 
thinks  of  it  at  all  is  perhaps  its  highest  praise.  It  is  marked 
in  general  by  sobriety,  ease  and  good  sense.  Often  miracles 
and  theological  absurdities  are  related  with  an  indulgent 
smile,  by  many  called  irony,  but  it  is  the  sort  of  affectionate 
irony  used  by  grown  people  toward  children.  There  is  no 
violence;  for  although  both  bad  and  good  are  characterized 
with  suitable  epithets,  there  is  always  an  aloofness  on  the 
part  of  the  writer,  as  of  one  not  engaged  in  the  affair,  not 
overpraising  or  blaming  the  actors,  never  really  indignant 
or  excited,  but  interested  in  understanding  the  drama  and  in 
viewing  the  varied  spectacle  that  his  theme  presents.  Even 
the  most  vivid  and  sometimes  painful  passages  do  not  much 
disturb  the  reader's  tranquillity.  This  effect  results  largely 
from  the  neutralizing  influence  of  intermingling  the  scien- 
tific with  the  imaginative  in  immediate  sequence.  We  are 
never  kept  long  on  the  same  level.  Often  the  mode  of  speak- 
ing is  distinctly  ecclesiastical,  the  eloquence  of  a  sermon ;  the 
next  moment  it  is  familiar^  the  tone  of  a  charming  causerie; 
then  again  the  rhythmical  sweep  of  an  apostrophe  will  ele- 
vate the  movement,  or  some  noble  object  or  thought  will 
clothe  itself  in  appropriately  ornate  expression.  There  are 
indeed  few  pages  that  can  be  called  dry,  although  the  amount 
of  intrinsic  interest  and  the  skill  displayed  certainly  vary  in 
different  parts  of  the  narrative. 

From  a  scientific  point  of  view,  it  is  probably  a  fault  that 
interpretation  is  not  invariably  distinguished  from  fact ;  but 
from  a  literary  point  of  view,  such  a  distinction  insistently 
forced  upon  our  attention  would  be  intolerable.  The  warning 
Renan  frequently  repeats  ought  to  have  been  sufficient,  but 
such  is  the  perversity  of  misunderstanding  that,  even  after 

411 


ERNEST  RENAN 

his  plain  statement  that  his  dates  are  merely  approximate, 
he  was  still  blamed  by  his  censors  for  printing  them  as  though 
they  were  exact.  Renan  carefully  studied  his  texts,  weighed 
their  value,  applied  all  available  subsidiary  helps,  such  as 
archaeology,  coins,  parallel  cases,  the  character  of  the  age  and 
country — the  comparative  method,  in  short,  with  all  the  de- 
vices of  modern  critical  scholarship :  then  he  formed  by  his 
imagination  a  picture  of  how  Christ  lived  and  spoke  and  per- 
formed healing  and  was  tried  and  executed ;  how  the  stories 
of  his  resurrection  arose  out  of  a  mixture  of  ecstatic  visions 
and  self-deceptions ;  then  he  saw  the  life  of  the  early  church 
at  Jerusalem  and  all  the  subsequent  incidents  of  his  history 
as  something  that  had  really  happened.  He  would  have  been 
the  last  to  maintain  that  his  narrative  was  confined  to  estab- 
lished facts :  it  was,  on  the  contrary,  bom  of  intuition  exercis- 
ing itself  upon  materials  provided  by  research.  How  could 
he  present  his  story  otherwise  than  in  the  language  of  a  man 
telling  a  thing  he  knows  ?  If,  in  the  course  of  his  labors,  he 
changes  his  judgment  upon  the  Fourth  Gospel,  or  the  broth- 
ers of  Jesus,  or  the  date  of  Montanism,  the  matter  is  suffi- 
ciently expounded  in  introductions  and  appendices.  Some 
little  dependence  surely  might  be  placed  on  the  intelligence 
of  the  reader.  He  might  be  trusted  not  to  be  led  astray  by 
positive  statements  employed  to  express  uncertainties.  Be- 
sides, what,  after  all,  is  certain  in  history?  Even  when  we 
have  copious  documents,  we  do  not  know  the  exact  detail  of 
anything.  It  is  the  general  lines,  the  grand  resultant  facts, 
that  nevertheless  remain  true. 

In  this  regard,  the  Origins  of  Christiamty  is  a  veritable 
history,  and  a  great  history ;  but  it  is  even  greater  as  a  work 
of  creative  imagination.  Such  imagination  is  here  applied 
both  in  the  interpretation  of  detail  and  in  the  perception  of 
the  general  scope  of  a  world  movement.  The  whole  course  of 
human  events  forms  a  sort  of  setting  in  which  this  movement 
proceeds,  sometimes  coming  into  the  foreground,  sometimes 

412 


ORIGINS  OF  CHRISTIANITY 

receding,  according  as  its  influence  upon  the  particular 
stream  is  increased  or  diminished.  As  the  author  moves  on, 
he  now  looks  backward  to  the  past,  now  forward  to  the 
future,  in  order  to  enlarge  the  significance  of  the  moment  at 
which  he  pauses.  Detail  is  added  to  detail,  ever  growing, 
ever  developing,  each  rising  out  of  the  preceding  in  a  fatal 
sequence.  The  little  starting  point  in  Galilee  recedes  into 
the  far  distance,  Jerusalem  is  overtaken  and  left  behind,  then 
all  Judea,  all  the  ancient  East,  as  the  stream  flows  inevitably 
forward  to  absorb  and  to  be  absorbed  by  Rome.  Here  we 
have  indeed  what  we  may  call  a  vast  spiritual  epic,  its  hero 
being  the  religious  idea,  and  its  fable  one  of  the  most  signifi- 
cant episodes  in  the  life  progress  of  humanity. 


CHAPTER  XII 


HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE  OF  ISRAEL 


The  fundamental  idea  of  the  History  is  that  Israel  had  a 
mission.  To  Renan  there  are  only  three  national  histories 
that  are  of  prime  interest  as  contributing  to  the  world 's  heri- 
tage of  civilization,  those  of  Greece,  Israel  and  Rome.  From 
Greece  we  receive  all  our  rational  and  progressive  humanism, 
every  intellectual,  moral  and  artistic  gift,  excepting  religion. 
Religion,  with  the  ideal  of  social  justice,  was  the  contribu- 
tion of  Israel  to  the  common  fund,  the  founders  of  Chris- 
tianity being  direct  continuators  of  the  prophets,  and  the 
churches  being  nothing  but  synagogues  open  to  the  uncir- 
cumcised.  Neither  of  these  creations,  however,  could  have 
conquered  the  world  without  the  force  of  Rome,  unlovely  but 
founded  on  civic  virtue,  a  force  that  leveled  the  nations  and 
fitted  the  world  for  the  propagation  of  Greek  culture  and 
Hebrew  religion.  The  work  of  all  three  was  thus  providen- 
tial ;  that  is,  indispensable  for  human  progress. 

The  part  of  Rome  does  not  attract  Renan.  "While  recog- 
nizing the  utility  of  force,  he  finds  it  brutal  and  repulsive. 
The  value  of  this  contribution,  moreover,  is  sufficiently  recog- 
nized in  the  Origins  of  Christianity.  As  to  Greece,  however, 
he  becomes  ecstatic.  "In  art,  O  heavens,  what  a  new  appari- 
tion !  What  a  world  of  gods  and  goddesses !  What  a  celes- 
tial revelation !  Here,  above  all,  Greece  showed  herself  crea- 
tive.    She  invented  beauty,  as  she  invented  reason. ' '  ^    Al- 

»Vol.  iv,  p.  197. 

414 


HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE  OF  ISRAEL 

though  Renan  does  not  confess  regret  for  the  Nazarite  vow 
that  early  attached  him  to  Jewish  and  Christian  problems, 
he  yet  rather  envies  the  future  historian  of  Greek  genius. 
"Happy  he  who  at  the  age  of  sixt}^  shall  write  this  history 
with  love,  after  having  employed  his  whole  life  in  studying 
the  works  consecrated  to  it  by  the  learned."  ^  One  seems  to 
detect  here  a  moment  of  such  revulsion  as  the  author  imagines 
in  those  who  have  renounced  the  world  for  some  high  call- 
ing. 

This  fleeting  impulse  does  not  weaken  his  devotion  to  his 
task.  His  theme  is  the  world  mission  of  Israel.  This  mission 
is  conceived  as  the  creation  of  Christianity,  after  which  there 
remained  no  important  function  for  this  race  to  perform. 
"The  man  who  has  a  vocation  is  good  for  nothing  else. 
Israel  carried  within  it  the  religious  future  of  the  world.  As 
soon  as  it  was  tempted  to  forget  itself  in  the  vulgar  paths  of 
other  peoples,  a  sort  of  somber  genius  directed  it  toward 
something  entirely  different,  and,  with  accents  of  bitter 
irony,  proclaimed  that  justice  of  the  ancient  sort  ought  never 
to  be  sacrificed."  '  Christianity  was  the  outcome,  but  every- 
thing developed  in  Christianity  had  its  roots  in  the  Judaism 
of  the  first  and  second  centuries  B.  C,  and  the  Judaism  of 
these  centuries  is  a  clear  result  of  a  process  of  development 
that  can  be  historically  traced. 

Not  that  we  are  dealing  with  certainties.  The  beginnings 
of  Judaism  take  us  to  the  dawn  of  civilization,  a  region  of 
conjecture,  centuries  before  the  earliest  documents.  Even 
for  later  epochs,  there  is  no  precision  of  detail.  Fortunate 
are  the  Arab  historians  who,  after  giving  several  versions  of 
an  incident,  can  tranquilly  add:  "God  knows  how  it  really 
was."  We  are  warned  that  the  chronology,  so  far  as  it  is 
indicated,  is  only  approximate,  the  error  from  the  time  of 
David  on,  being  perhaps  no  more  than  twenty  years.    Exact 

'Vol.  i,  p.  vi. 
•VoL  ii,  p.  265. 

415 


ERNEST  RENAN 

dates  are  printed  merely  to  help  fix  ideas  and  aid  the  imagi- 
nation in  properly  spacing  the  succession  of  facts.*  There  is 
hardly  a  sentence  that  should  not  contain  the  word  "per- 
haps." If  the  reader  does  not  find  it  often  enough  let  him 
suppose  it  throughout  scattered  profusely  in  the  margin.^ 
Yet,  in  spite  of  all  uncertainties,  the  author  is  confident  of 
the  correctness  of  his  final  result.  "Even  if  I  should  have 
conjectured  ill  on  certain  points,  I  am  sure  I  have  under- 
stood in  its  ensemble  the  unique  work  that  the  breath  of  God, 
that  is  to  say,  the  soul  of  the  world,  has  realized  through 
Israel. "« 

This  unique  work  is  the  achievement  of  the  prophets,  and 
it  embraces  the  entire  religious  endeavor  of  mankind,  since 
both  Christianity  and  Islam  are  its  offspring.  "The  origin 
of  Christianity  goes  back  to  the  great  prophets,  who  intro- 
duced morality  into  religion  toward  850  B.  C. ;  the  prophet- 
ism  of  the  ninth  century  itself  has  its  roots  in  the  ancient 
ideal  of  patriarchal  life,  an  ideal  party  created  by  imagina- 
tion, but  which  had  some  reality  in  the  distant  past  of  the 
Israelitish  tribe. ' '  ^  All  the  ideas  of  Israel  were  born  in  a 
way  so  inevitable  that  they  seemed  predestined.  The  product 
was  a  natural  evolution,  step  by  step,  from  nomadic  life, 
through  the  broils  of  petty  tribes,  to  Jerusalem,  the  Temple 
and  the  Law,  on  the  one  hand,  and  on  the  other,  to  the 
prophets,  the  Apocalyptic  vision,  the  Messiah.  In  this  evo- 
lution there  are  three  main  threads  which,  though  often  his- 
torically intertwined,  may  be  conveniently  disentangled  and 
considered  separately;  the  conflict  between  the  tribal  and 
the  universal  idea  of  God,  the  conflict  between  social  ideals 
and  political  power,  and  the  conflict  between  free  inspiration 
and  the  sacerdotal  system.  . 

*Vol.  ii,  p.  iv. 
'  Vol.  i,  p.  XV. 
•Vol.  i,  p.  zxix. 
*Vol,  i,  p.  vii, 

416 


HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE  OF  ISRAEL 

In  the  primitive  age  are  found  Elohim  or  spirits,  also 
spoken  of  in  the  singular  as  a  collection  of  spirits  or  the  great 
spirit.  Then  God  got  a  proper  name,  Jahve,  which,  from  the 
religious  point  of  view,  marked  a  great  decadence,  for  a 
proper  name  is  the  negation  of  the  divine  essence.  About 
1000  B.  C.  Jahve  was  a  tribal  god,  cruel,  unjust,  revengeful, 
differing  little  from  the  god  of  Moab  or  of  Edom.  In  the 
next  century  began  the  line  of  the  prophets,  the  legendary 
Elias  and  Elijah,  then  Amos,  Hosea,  Micah,  and,  greatest  of 
all,  Isaiah,  the  classic  genius  of  Judaism,  who  gave  definitive 
form  to  Hebrew  ideas.  By  a  series  of  thrusts,  continuous 
and  always  increasing  in  vigor,  these  enthusiasts  returned 
to  the  primitive  patriarchal  Elohim.  In  their  speech  the  local 
and  provincial  Jahve  was  transformed  into  the  God  who 
made  heaven  and  earth  and  whose  will  is  justice  and  right- 
eousness. This  movement  is  the  essential  fact  in  Hebrew  his- 
tory. All  that  preceded  led  up  to  it,  for  monotheism  required 
as  its  basis  the  protecting  god  of  a  little  tribe,  a  paternal  god, 
not  too  far  off  for  intimacy,  not  too  abstract  and  absolute 
for  personal  contact.  And  all  that  followed  this  age  only 
consolidated  and  gave  organization  to  the  prophetic  impulse, 
so  that  opposition  and  hardship,  exile  and  massacre,  served 
merely  to  make  conviction  more  obstinate. 

Closely  associated  with  the  development  of  the  idea  of 
God  is  the  conflict  between  social  ideals  and  political  power. 
No  people  plays  two  roles  at  the  same  time.  National  and 
religious  greatness  are  incompatible.  The  performance  of  a 
signal  duty  to  humanity  involves  the  sacrifice  of  little  mun- 
dane hopes.  While,  from  the  patriotic  point  of  view,  the 
tribal  god  with  a  name  marks  a  progress,  every  step  toward 
the  national  idea,  beneficial  as  it  might  be  if  it  had  been 
Israel's  destiny  to  found  a  nation,  was  a  decline  in  its  the- 
ology. Happily,  each  impulse  in  this  direction  was  but  a 
passing  error.  There  was  something  in  Israel  superior  to 
national  prejudice.    This  people  had  a  mission,  and  until  its 

417 


ERNEST  RENAN 

mission  was  fulfilled  nothing  could  distract  it.  The  proph- 
ets, true  depositaries  of  the  spirit  of  the  race,  expel  the  ex- 
clusive god  and  return  to  the  patriarchal  unpatriotic  idea  of 
a  just  and  good  father,  One  for  the  whole  human  race.  To 
them  the  events  of  world  history  were  the  politics  of  Jahve, 
and  the  conquering  despot  who  overthrew  a  faithless  king  at 
Jerusalem  and  slaughtered  his  faithless  subjects  was  hailed 
as  Jahve 's  instrument.  Furthermore  their  theocratic  democ- 
racy undermined  the  bases  of  civil  order.  Always  in  con- 
flict with  royalty,  they  destroyed  the  state,  but  by  so  doing 
they  created  the  originality  and  the  historic  importance  of 
Israel. 

The  history  of  ancient  Judaism  furnishes  the  best  example  of 
the  opposition  between  social  and  political  questions.  The  think- 
ers of  Israel  are  the  first  who  revolted  against  the  injustice  of 
the  world,  who  refused  to  undergo  the  inequalities,  the  abuses, 
the  privileges  without  which  there  can  exist  no  army  or  strong 
society.  They  compromised  the  existence  of  their  Uttle  nation, 
but  founded  the  religious  edifice  which,  under  the  names  of  Juda- 
ism, Christianity,  Islam,  has  served  as  a  refuge  for  humanity  to 
this  day.  Herein  there  is  a  lesson  that  the  modems  cannot  medi- 
tate enough.  Nations  that  give  themselves  to  social  questions 
will  perish;  but  if  the  future  belongs  to  such  questions,  it  will  be 
fine  to  die  for  the  cause  destined  to  triumph.  All  sensible  people 
in  Jerusalem  about  500  B.  C.  were  furious  at  the  prophets,  who 
rendered  all  military  and  diplomatic  action  impossible.  What  a 
pity,  however,  if  these  sublime  fools  had  been  checked !  Jerusalem 
would  have  succeeded  in  being  a  little  longer  the  capital  of  an 
insignificant  kingdom ;  it  would  not  have  become  the  religious  capi- 
tal of  the  human  race.' 

A  similar  conflict  was  waged  between  the  prophets  and 
the  priestly  order.  Israel  had  within  it  two  opposite  cur- 
rents, the  alternating  predominance  of  which  constitutes  its 
entire  religious  history.  On  the  one  hand,  we  find  the  spirit 
of  the  closed  sect,  exclusive,  intolerant,  antisocial,  given  to 

•VpL  iii,  p.  vi. 

m 


HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE  OF  ISRAEL 

formalism  and  sacrifices,  buying  favors  from  Jahve  by  strict 
observance  of  the  Law.  God  becomes,  in  a  certain  sense, 
their  private  property.  This  perversion  of  religion  is  Phari- 
saism. On  the  other  hand,  we  find  the  idealism  of  the  proph- 
ets, their  affirmation  of  a  future  of  justice  to  humanity,  their 
protestation  against  gross  ritualism,  and  their  propagation  of 
a  worship  of  inward  feeling  instead  of  outward  sacrifices. 
Their  God  is  the  God  of  all,  to  whom  legal  impurities  are  as 
nothing  compared  with  the  impurity  of  evil  deeds.  Yet, 
just  as  the  tribal  god,  enemy  of  the  universal  Father,  was  a 
necessary  stage  in  the  development  of  this  idea,  so  the  Thora, 
enemy  of  universal  religion,  was  a  necessary  structure  to 
preserve  the  prophets.  It  was,  in  fact,  partly  their  creation. 
In  its  construction  three  periods  are  marked:  "The  first, 
characterized  by  a  grandiose  genius,  expressed  in  simple 
formulas  that  the  whole  world  might  adopt  (this  is  the  age 
of  the  ancient  prophets,  of  the  Book  of  the  Alliance,  of  the 
Decalogue)  ;  the  second,  stamped  with  a  severe  and  touching 
morality,  partly  spoiled  by  a  very  intense  fanatical  pietism 
(this  is  the  age  of  the  Deuteronomist  and  of  Jeremiah) ;  the 
third,  sacerdotal,  narrow,  Utopian,  full  of  chimeras  and  im- 
possibilities (this  is  the  age  of  Ezekiel  and  of  Leviticus),"  * 
The  precepts  of  the  Thora,  often  excellent  as  hyperbolic  ex- 
pressions of  lofty  moral  sentiments,  became  senseless  when 
regarded  as  a  practical  code.  Its  greatest  misfortune  was 
that  it  should  be  applied,  as  happened  from  the  Asmonean 
revolt  to  the  fall  of  Jerusalem  in  70  A.  D.  For  a  time, 
indeed,  it  won  a  complete  victory.  Jerusalem  belonged  to 
Pharisees  and  Sadducees,  to  the  rigid  formalists  and  to  the 
proud,  aristocratic,  irreligious  priesthood.  Yet,  of  every 
disinterested  endeavor,  something  is  left.  The  spirit  of  the 
prophets  awoke  again  in  Jesus,  and  the  power  of  the  Thora 
was  broken  forever. 

•Vol.  iii,  pp.  432,  433. 

419 


ERNEST  RENAN 

While,  at  this  time,  all  official  glory  was  awarded  to  dis- 
putes on  the  Law,  certain  other  influences  were  working  in 
the  direction  of  the  new  evolution.  These  included  the  rise 
of  the  synagogue  in  the  Diaspora,  the  popularity  of  apoca- 
Ijrptic  visions,  and  ahove  all  the  growth  of  Messianism.  An 
ancient  prophet  compensating  himself  in  imagination  for  the 
deceptions  of  reality,  had  traced  his  ideal  of  a  kindly,  pacific 
king,  thus  for  the  first  time  presenting  the  traits  of  the 
Messiah,  who  should  realize  all  the  hopes  of  the  nation.  Each 
generation  added  its  hopes  and  its  visions,  until  the  portrait 
was  complete.  The  time  was  ripe  for  the  coming  of  the 
Christ. 

Such  are  the  main  threads  running  through  this  history. 

II 

The  work  is  divided  into  ten  books,  two  to  a  volume.  Each 
book  completes  a  topic  and  a  period,  and  the  interest  varies 
with  the  subject  matter.  Book  I  deals  with  the  origin  of  civ- 
ilization and  with  Israel  as  a  nomadic  tribe,  hardly  distin- 
guishable from  other  wandering  groups  of  Semites.  Their 
religion  is  the  religion  of  the  tent,  a  sort  of  Monotheism.  As 
the  epoch  lies  centuries  before  written  records,  we  are  here 
in  the  region  of  speculation,  assisted  by  folklore,  philology 
and  psychology.  The  picture  is  uncertain,  but  not  wholly  un- 
decipherable. Even  though  Abraham,  Isaac,  Jacob  and  the 
rest  are  mere  creations  of  fiction,  ' '  the  patriarchal  age  really 
existed ;  it  exists  still  in  those  countries  where  nomad  Arab 
life  has  retained  its  purity.""  In  Egypt  the  tribe  became 
a  nation,  and  El  or  the  Elohim,  a  sort  of  universal  divine 
spirit,  was  supplanted  by  Jahve,  the  national  god  with  a  per- 
sonal name,  cruel,  unjust,  a  product  and  minister  of  national 
egotism.  The  wanderings  in  the  wilderness  are  reduced  from 
the  impossible  forty  years  to  as  many  months,  or  less,  and 

*Vol.  i,  p.  X. 

420 


HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE  OF  ISRAEL 

the  revelation  on  Sinai  to  a  vague  and  awful  recollection 
attached  to  this  anti-human  mountain,  fruitless,  waterless, 
seat  of  everlasting  desolation,  haunt  of  terrors  and  home  of 
raging  tempest,  * '  from  which,  it  is  said,  came  the  Thora,  but 
never  a  particle  of  life."  As  the  Beni-Israel  was  preparing 
to  fight  for  a  settled  home  in  Palestine,  Rengin  looks  with  a 
certain  regret  to  the  past.  "The  patriarchal  era  was  end- 
ing ;  nations  began ;  human  society  lost  in  nobility  and  good- 
ness ;  it  required  a  larger  and  stronger  structure. ' '  ^^ 

Book  II  is  filled  with  the  ferocious  combats  of  insignificant 
tribes,  inspired  by  their  national  gods.  Jahve,  Camos,  Dagon, 
are  equally  patriotic,  and  demand  of  their  adherents  equally 
horrible  atrocities.  Here,  too,  the  details  are  doubtful.  Per- 
haps Joshua  has  no  more  historic  reality  than  Jacob.  But 
songs  were  made,  though  not  yet  written,  the  pearls  of  He- 
brew poetry.  "The  finest  pages  of  the  Bible  are  to  spring 
from  these  verses  of  children  and  women  who,  after  each 
victory,  received  the  conqueror  with  cries  of  joy  to  the  sound 
of  the  tambourine. ' '  ^^  Meanwhile,  the  Ark  became  a  faint 
precursor  of  the  Temple  and  the  tendency  toward  monarchy 
produced  King  Saul.  After  him  came  David,  the  brave, 
hardy,  adroit  bandit,  capable  at  the  same  time  of  the  worst 
crimes  and  of  the  most  delicate  sentiments.  Unconscious 
agent  of  the  forces  of  the  world,  he  built  a  fortress  on  Mount 
Sion  and  thus  founded  Jerusalem. 

Book  III  continues  the  story  of  David's  reign,  carries  us 
through  the  age  of  Solomon  and  ends  with  the  political  sev- 
erance of  the  northern  from  the  southern  kingdom.  In  this 
narrative  there  stand  out  from  the  petty  details  three  points 
of  supreme  importance  for  the  history  of  Judaism,  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  exclusive  worship  of  Jahve,  the  building  of 
the  Temple,  and  the  separation  of  Israel  from  Judah.  The 
success  of  Jahve 's  servants  was  of  course  the  success  of 

"Vol.  i,  p.  210. 
"VoL  i,  p.  305. 

421 


ERNEST  RENAN 

Jahve  himself.  If  David  was  cruel  and  deceitful,  it  was 
Jahve  who  commanded  this  cruelty  and  deceit.  When  the 
king  punished  crimes  at  which  he  had  connived  and  thus 
succeeded  in  ridding  himself  of  troublesome  accomplices,  he 
acted  as  the  divine  avenger.  In  return  for  his  devotion  and 
his  burnt  offerings,  Jahve,  according  to  contract,  awarded 
him  victory,  bestowed  upon  him  power  and  fortune,  and 
maintained  his  descendants  upon  the  throne.  As  a  result  of 
this  belief,  the  national  god  became  firmly  established  in 
the  consciousness  of  the  people.  Moreover,  when  the  king 
brought  the  Ark  to  its  tent  on  Sion,  he  unwittingly  per- 
formed a  decisive  act  in  the  history  of  the  world.  Solomon, 
just  as  unwittingly,  in  building  the  Temple,  as  a  purely 
royal  undertaking,  a  plaything,  a  domestic  sanctuary,  estab- 
lished a  permanent  center  for  the  worehip  of  the  tribal  divin- 
ity who  grew  into  a  universal  god.  On  tlie  other  hand,  the 
secession  of  the  northern  tribes,  by  destroying  the  political 
power  of  the  government,  procured  freedom  for  the  prophets, 
and  thus  assured  the  transcendant  destiny  of  Israel. 

"With  Book  IV  we  enter  upon  the  most  significant  epoch  in 
the  evolution  of  Hebrew  religious  ideas.  Here  are  discussed 
the  earliest  compositions  which  entered  into  the  construction 
of  the  Bible,  patriarchal  idyls,  and  heroic  legends,  first  writ- 
ten in  the  northern  kingdom  about  900  B.  C.  Like  a  breath 
from  the  springtime  of  the  world,  uniting  exquisite  freshness 
with  grandiose  crudity,  these  writings,  still  discernible  with- 
in later  compilations  in  which  they  are  imbedded,  preserve 
half  the  poetry  of  humanity.  To  the  same  period  belongs  the 
first  written  form  of  the  Law,  which  later  developed  into  the 
inflexible  Thora.  But  most  important  of  all  are  the  prophets, 
who  maintained  a  reactionary  ideal  of  pastoral  or  agricul- 
tural life,  without  a  regular  army,  central  authority  or  court 
with  princely  aristocracy,  without  temple  or  fixed  altar  or 
priestly  caste.  Royalty  was  conquered,  and  the  future  was 
placed  in  the  hands,  not  of  wise  kings  and  sensible  states- 

422 


HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE  OF  ISRAEL 

men,  but  of  visionaries,  Utopians,  inspired  democrats,  who 
made  and  unmade  dynasties,  preached  limitless  theocracy, 
established  religion  and  ruined  the  state.  Here  we  meet 
Elias  and  Elijah,  real  individuals,  indeed,  but  so  overlaid 
with  legend  that  they  have  become  mere  personifications  of 
the  prophetic  ideal;  Amos  and  Hosea,  who  proclaimed  that 
God  loves  goodness  rather  than  sacrifices ;  and  greatest  of  all, 
Isaiah,  the  classic  genius  of  Judaism,  who  gave  definitive 
form  to  the  Hebraic  ideas  of  Providence  and  social  justice, 
which  Jesus  and  the  Apostles  had  only  to  repeat.  Sad  to 
say,  the  prophets  are  to  such  an  extent  soiled  by  hatred  and 
barbarism  that,  in  reading  the  hideous  stories  of  their  ven- 
geance and  cruelty,  we  are  glad  to  think  these  the  mere  in- 
ventions of  later  admirers;  but,  in  spite  of  the  prophetic 
maledictions  and  blood-thirstiness,  Jahve  becomes  with  these 
fanatics  the  God  who  has  created  heaven  and  earth  and  who 
loves  justice  and  righteousness.  Prophetism  is  thus  the  most 
decisive  event  in  Jewish  history,  *'the  beginning  of  the  chain 
that  in  nine  hundred  years  finds  its  last  link  in  Jesus. ' '  ^* 
The  Fourth  Book  ends  with  the  fall  of  Samaria. 

Thenceforth  Judah  pursued  alone  the  work  laid  upon  Israel 
as  a  whole.  It  pursued  this  work  with  a  conseeutiveness  far 
superior  to  that  which  the  tribes  of  the  north  had  been  able  to 
put  into  it.  Half  a  century,  indeed,  before  the  capture  of  Samaria, 
almost  the  whole  activity  of  the  Hebrew  genius  had  been  concen- 
trated in  Judah.  Prophetism  had  arrived  at  its  essential  results; 
monotheism,  God  (or  Jahve)  being  the  sole  cause  of  the  phe- 
nomena of  the  universe;  the  justice  of  Jahve,  the  necessity  that 
this  justice  should  be  realized  on  earth  and  for  each  individual 
within  the  period  of  his  life;  democratic  puritanism  of  manners, 
hatred  of  luxury,  of  profane  civilization;  absolute  confidence  in 
Jahve;  worship  of  Jahve  consisting  above  all  in  purity  of  heart. 
The  vastness  of  such  a  revolution  is  astonishing,  and,  on  reflection, 
we  find  that  the  moment  of  this  creation  is  the  most  fecund  of 
all  religious  history.     Even  the  initial  movement  of  Christianity 

"Vol.  u,  p.  329. 

423 


ERNEST  RENAN 

in  the  first  century  of  our  era  must  yield  to  this  extraordinary 
movement  of  Jewish  prophetism  of  the  eighth  century  before 
Christ.  Jesus  is  in  Isaiah  all  complete.  The  destiny  of  Israel 
in  the  development  of  humanity  is  as  clearly  written  towards 
720  B.  C.  as  was  that  of  Greece  two  hundred  years  later." 

Book  V  continues  the  story  of  the  monotheistic  prophets, 
who  solidified  the  work  so  that  it  survived  the  destruction  of 
Jerusalem  by  Nebuchadnezzar.  The  little  city  of  David, 
e?:alted  by  the  fall  of  Samaria,  developed  a  new  intensity  of 
religious  life,  manifested  in  an  unparalleled  creative  activity. 
Moral  and  social  problems  became  the  essence  of  this  religion. 
The  ideal  is  a  theocratic  republic,  and  to  serve  Jahve  is  the 
first  duty  of  the  state.  The  friends  of  Jahve,  the  elite,  are 
the  poor  and  humble.  They  are  just,  faithful  and  righteous, 
while  the  rich  are  hard,  violent  and  impious.  The  reign  of 
Ezechias  is  the  classic  epoch  of  Hebrew  literature  and  its 
masterpiece  is  the  Book  of  Job,  But  the  great  figure  of  the 
age  is  Jeremiah,  whose  terrible  fanaticism  concentrated  the 
energetic  germs  of  Judaism  into  an  indestructible  force  and 
gave  to  a  local  worship  the  capacity  to  become  universal. 
This  somber  genius,  a  radical  destroyer  in  politics,  rejoicing 
in  the  extermination  of  peaceful  citizens  and,  sympathizing 
with  the  fierce  heathen  agent  of  Jahve 's  vengeance,  was  yet 
a  powerful  creator  in  religion,  who  cast  his  spell  upon  Jeru- 
salem and  determined  the  religious  destiny  of  humanity. 
Without  him  there  would  have  been  no  Christianity.  Then 
come  the  fantastic  visions  of  the  exiled  Ezekiel,  source  from 
which  all  apocalyptic  imagery  has  been  drawn.  At  this  mo- 
ment Judah  is  transplanted  from  Palestine  to  Mesopotamia 
only  to  redouble  the  intensity  of  its  Judaism  within  the  walls 
of  Babylon. 

Book  VI  covers  the  exile.  In  captivity  the  worldly  were 
absorbed,  the  saints  alone  remained  separate,  sustained  by 

"VoL  ii,  pp.  538,  539. 

424 


HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE  OF  ISRAEL 

trust  that  Jahve  would  keep  his  word  and  reestablish  his 
worship  in  a  rebuilt  Jerusalem  under  an  ideal  David  who 
would  cause  justice  to  reign.  The  old  books  were  again  re- 
written with  the  addition  of  a  priestly  Law,  not  fitted  to 
realities,  but  speculative,  chimerical,  socialistic.  Ezekiel  con- 
tinues his  labors,  but  the  great  progressive  thinker,  the  cul- 
mination of  three  centuries  of  religious  effort,  was  the  anon- 
ymous prophet  (the  second  Isaiah)  who  saw  that  Israel's 
mission  was  the  establishment  of  true  religion  for  the  whole 
human  race.  For  the  first  time,  a  voice  proclaimed  that  all 
peoples  have  only  one  God,  whose  temple  is  the  universe  and 
whose  ritual  is  justice.  "With  him  we  are  on  the  top  of  a 
mountain  from  which  Jesus  is  seen  on  the  summit  of  another, 
and  between  the  two  lies  a  great  hollow. ' '  ^^  Meanwhile 
Cyrus  has  overthrown  Babylon  and  the  little  caravan  starts 
across  the  desert. 

Cantate  Domino  Canticum  Novum,  this  was  the  inaugural  chant 
of  the  era  now  opening.  Poor  humanity  needs  to  affirm  that  it 
intones  a  new  song  when  often  it  only  repeats  the  old  tunes. 
No  people  has  ever  lived  on  hope  so  much  as  the  Jews.  Judaism 
and  nascent  Christianity  are  religions  of  obstinate  hope,  per- 
sisting in  spite  of  all  appearances.  The  return  from  Babylon 
was  hope  pushed  to  folly,  and  here  again  folly  was  found  to  be 
a  good  counselor,  at  least  so  far  as  concerns  the  general  interests 
of  the  world.  In  the  history  of  Judaism  this  can  be  called  the 
solemn  hour,  the  hour  that  decides  death  or  life.  If  the  return 
had  not  taken  place,  Judah  would  have  had  the  fate  of  Israel;  it 
would  have  been  absorbed  in  the  East;  Christianity  would  not 
have  existed;  the  Hebrew  writings  would  have  been  lost;  we 
should  have  known  nothing  of  those  stories  that  charm  and  con- 
sole us.  The  little  troop  that  crossed  the  desert  indeed  carried 
with  it  the  future;  it  founded  definitively  the  religion  of  hu- 
manity." 

Throughout  the  next  four  books  we  are  in  the  hollow  be- 
tween the  two  mountains.    The  great  creative  epoch  is  past, 

«Vol.  iii,  p.  502. 
"Vol.  iii,  pp.  523,  524. 

425 


ERNEST  RENAN 

and  effort  is  now  absorbed  in  solidifying,  amplifying  and 
working  out  details,  the  most  prominent  of  which  concern 
the  development  and  application  of  the  Thora. 

Book  VII :  By  a  miracle  of  faith  and  hope,  the  Jahvists, 
returned  to  Judea,  reestablished  their  worship  and  rebuilt 
Jerusalem.  In  this  city  the  high  priest  becomes  the  real  ruler 
and  the  new  Temple  becomes  the  seat  of  an  elaborate  liturgy. 
The  Levitical  code  prescribes  ceremonies,  holy  feasts,  pil- 
grimages, sacrifices,  fasting,  penance,  purification,  expia- 
tion, all  legal,  exterior,  the  materialism  of  religion.  If  a 
prophet  finds  himself  in  the  midst  of  the  priesthood,  he  no 
longer  speaks  to  the  crowd  words  of  fire,  but  in  retirement 
writes  apocalyptic  visions.  In  fact  the  prophets  have  passed 
away ;  they  must  be  brought  back  from  Sheol.  In  the  stories 
told  of  Ellas  and  Jonah  appear  the  first  traces  of  the  resur- 
rection of  the  dead.  It  is  in  the  fifth  century,  too,  that  the 
form  of  the  Hebrew  Bible  is  definitively  fixed.  The  editing 
is  incoherent,  but  so  much  the  better.  ' '  Thus  was  formed  in 
about  four  centuries,  by  the  commixture  of  the  most  diverse 
elements,  this  strange  conglomeration  where  are  found  in- 
termingled fragments  of  epopee,  debris  of  sacred  history, 
articles  of  customary  law,  ancient  popular  songs,  tales  of 
nomads,  Utopias  or  pretended  religious  laws,  legends  stamped 
with  fanaticism,  bits  of  prophecy,  the  whole  implanted  in  a 
pious  veinstone  that  has  made  of  a  heap  of  profane  debris  a 
sacred  book,  the  soul  of  a  people."  "  At  this  time  too  the 
chain  of  the  Thora  is  forged,  a  bondage  that  Israel  has  never 
broken.  The  doctor  versed  in  the  Law  rises  to  eminence. 
Indeed  the  Thora  absorbs  the  whole  intellectual  effort  of  the 
race.  It  is  all  they  desire  to  know,  their  entire  philosophy 
and  science,  a  source,  not  only  of  happiness,  but  of  pleasure, 
* '  a  sort  of  game  of  solitaire  for  poor  old  decrepit  Israel. ' '  ^* 

Book  VIII :    With  the  conquest  of  Alexander,  we  arrive  at 

"Vol.  iv,  p.  112. 
"Vol.  iv,  p.  186. 

426 


HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE  OF  ISRAEL 

the  first  contact  with  western  civilization.  The  glory  of 
Greece,  with  its  science,  philosophy  and  art,  spreads  over 
the  Orient.  Palestine,  though  in  spirit  untouched  by  this 
culture,  is  yet  subjugated  politically,  until  the  Maccabees 
arise  and  establish  national  autonomy.  Nevertheless,  resi- 
dence among  the  Greeks  in  Alexandria  and  Antioch,  which 
now  become  important  Jewish  centers,  leads  to  far-reaching 
developments.  As  there  could  be  but  one  Temple,  and  sacri- 
fices were  forbidden  elsewhere,  there  grew  up,  afar  from 
sacerdotal  Jerusalem  and  particularly  in  Alexandria,  a  reli- 
gion without  altar  and  without  priests,  somewhat  resembling 
that  of  which  the  prophets  had  dreamed.  Here  we  find  the 
germ  of  the  later  synagogue,  the  most  original  and  fecund 
of  Jewish  creations,  a  little  group  meeting  to  sing  hymns 
and  to  read  and  discuss  the  Law  and  the  Prophets.  For  those 
who  had  forgotten  their  Hebrew,  as  well  as  for  outsiders,  a 
translation  into  Greek  was  made,  the  Septuagint,  a  version 
full  of  errors.  This  became  the  Bible  of  the  early  Church 
and  it  is  often  from  its  downright  blunders  that  Messianic 
ideas  were  destined  to  grow.  Meanwhile,  persecution  pro- 
duced martyrs,  and,  since  the  Jews  had  no  conception  of  a 
soul  as  distinct  from  the  body,  these  martyrs,  whom  a  just 
God  was  presumed  to  reward,  strengthened  the  notion  of  the 
resurrection  of  the  just  in  the  flesh  to  enjoy  the  future  King- 
dom of  God  on  earth.  Such  is  the  inspiration  of  the  Book  of 
Daniel,  which,  ill-^vTitten,  flat,  prolix,  incorrect,  often  un- 
translatable, marks  the  passage  from  the  monotheistic  to  the 
Messianic  age.  It  became  the  model  for  all  later  apocalyptic 
visions,  which  repeat  its  images  and  which  must  in  the  same 
fashion  gain  credence  by  coming  forth  under  the  celebrated 
name  of  some  ancient  prophet  or  sage. 

Book  IX :  The  long  narrative  is  drawing  to  its  close ;  we 
are  coming  to  the  conditions  into  which  Jesus  was  bom.  The 
whole  secret  of  Jewish  history  from  this  time  forth  is  found 
in  the  opposition  of  Pharisee  and  Sadducee.    On  the  other 

427 


ERNEST  RENAN 

hand,  something  much  like  Christian  monasticism  is  exhibited 
in  the  communistic  communities  of  the  Essenes,  with  their 
rigorous  discipline,  their  special  rites  and  their  sacred  repast 
in  common.  The  first  of  the  series  of  apocalyptic  poems  attri- 
buted, not  to  a  Hebrew  prophet,  but  to  the  everliving  Sibyl, 
makes  its  appearance  in  Alexandria.  And  now  we  are  taken 
for  a  time  out  of  the  current  to  enjoy  the  admirable  pages 
devoted  to  Ecclesiastes,  the  work  of  an  incredulous  man  of 
the  world  calmly  viewing  the  absurdities  of  human  fate,  one 
who  finds  his  modern  counterpart  in  Heine.  In  the  midst  of 
the  Bible,  this  book  is  "like  a  little  composition  of  Voltaire 
astray  amid  the  folios  of  a  theological  library. ' ' 

Book  X :  At  last  the  Roman  power  enters  into  possession 
of  the  East.  Herod  needs  its  support  for  his  tyranny.  Hor- 
rible as  this  was,  his  most  famous  massacre  is  yet  fictitious. 
"The  list  of  Herod's  real  crimes  is  long  enough  to  need  no 
amplification  from  those  that  are  apocryphal.  Jesus  was 
not  bom  when  Herod  died  at  Jerusalem.  Yet,  in  a  sense,  it 
is  true  that  Herod  tried  to  kill  Jesus.  If  his  idea  of  a  pro- 
fane Jewish  kingdom  had  prevailed,  there  would  have  been 
no  Christianity."^^  But  a  permanent  secular  state  could 
not  be  established  in  Jerusalem ;  it  was  contrary  to  destiny. 
Several  insurrections  were  suppressed  by  Varus.  "Two 
thousand  unfortunates  were  crucified;  order  reigned 
anew. ' '  ^°  Judea  became  a  Roman  province  under  a  procu- 
rator, an  office  later  filled  by  Pilate.  At  the  same  time,  Jews 
spread  throughout  the  cities  of  the  Mediterranean,  forming 
the  Diaspora  and  conducting  a  propaganda  that  prepared 
the  way  for  Paul  and  other  Christian  missionaries.  In  Alex- 
andria Philon  attempted  to  reduce  Judaism  to  a  sort  of 
deism  or  natural  religion  and  the  Book  of  Wisdom  enunciat- 
ed the  doctrine  of  the  immortality  of  the  soul.  The  age  was 
naively  credulous;  assertions  were  made  and  accepted  with- 

"Vol.  V,  p.  303. 
»  Vol.  V,  p.  306. 

428 


HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE  OF  ISRAEL 

out  reason,  one  could  lie  and  believe  his  own  lies.  It  pro- 
duced Enoch,  The  Assumption  of  Moses,  The  Little  Genesis, 
books  that  belong  to  the  same  group  as  the  synoptic  Gospels 
and  the  Apocalypse  named  of  John.  There  were  in  Judea 
opposed  tendencies,  groups  and  coteries  of  many  sorts,  Phari- 
sees, Sadducees,  Essenes,  Zealots,  and  also  Apocalyptists 
and  Apocryphists.  Among  these  latter  what  may  be  called 
the  mji;hology  of  the  Messiah  became  fixed.  Everything  was 
ready  for  the  new  movement.  * '  The  remote  cause  of  Chris- 
tianity was  the  ancient  prophets  of  Israel.  The  mediate 
cause  was  the  eschatologieal  movement  which,  since  the  Book 
of  Daniel,  so  strongly  agitated  the  Jewish  spirit.  The  proxi- 
mate cause  was  the  Messianic  school  of  Judea,  whose  mani- 
festations are  the  Book  of  Enoch  and  The  Assumption  of 
Moses.    The  immediate  cause  was  John  the  Baptist. ' '  ^^ 

The  last  chapter,  the  link  with  the  Origins  of  Christianity, 
is  headed  Fimto  libro,  sit  laws  et  gloria  Christo.  The  low- 
lands, where  we  have  been  traveling  since  the  days  of  the 
prophets,  have  led  us  to  the  second  mountain,  on  top  of 
which  stands  Jesus.  Christianity  is  the  end,  the  final  cause 
of  Judaism,  the  resume  of  its  evolution,  the  masterpiece  by 
which  it  has  conquered  the  world.  In  Jesus  all  the  messian- 
ism  since  Daniel  arrived  at  its  minority.  "The  prophets, 
vanquished  by  the  Thora  after  the  return  from  captivity, 
are  now  definitively  victorious.  .  .  .  Jesus,  the  last  of  the 
prophets,  puts  the  seal  on  the  work  of  Israel.  .  .  .  Dreams  of 
the  future,  the  Kingdom  of  God,  hopes  without  end  are  to 
be  born  under  the  guidance  of  this  divine  enchanter  and  to 
become  for  centuries  the  nourishment  of  humanity. ' '  ^^  For 
Jesus  is  a  real  personality,  and  not  only  real,  but  great  and 
beautiful.  He  inspired  in  a  little  circle  a  love  so  miraculous 
that  it  produced  the  resurrection  and,  being  spread  abroad, 
inspired  the  adoration  of  the  world. 


Vol.  V,  p.  413. 
'  Vol.  V,  p.  415, 


429 


ERNEST  RENAN 


III 


The  subject  matter  here  is  of  slighter  interest  than  that  in 
the  Origins  of  Christianity.  The  period  covered  in  five  vol- 
umes is  so  long  that  the  incidents  are  sometimes  overcrowded, 
and  the  incidents  themselves  are  for  the  most  part  insignifi- 
cant, the  interminable  battles  of  little  tribes  led  by  obscure 
captains  and  kings,  sieges,  burnings  of  towns,  pillage  and 
slaughter.  What  do  we  care  for  the  tediously  reiterated 
broils  of  Israel,  Judah,  Edom,  Moab  and  Ammon?  They 
were  once  dignified  by  being  placed  under  the  patronage  of 
the  Almighty;  Renan  finds  a  different  element  of  interest. 
* '  This  trivial  history  of  a  little  people,  without  great  military 
institutions,  without  political  consequence,  without  splendor 
in  art,  would  hardly  merit  telling  if,  along  side  of  a  profane 
life  in  no  wise  superior  to  that  of  Moab  or  Edom,  the  Israel- 
ites had  not  possessed  a  series  of  extraordinary  men  who,  at 
a  time  when  the  idea  of  right  hardly  existed,  stood  as  de- 
fenders of  the  weak  and  oppressed.-^  But  the  prophets 
themselves  become,  it  must  be  confessed,  a  little  tedious. 
Their  outbursts  of  hatred  and  vengeance,  their  invectives  and 
woeful  warnings,  even  their  pictures  of  the  ideal  future,  full 
of  joy  for  the  righteous,  but  also  full  of  punishment  for  the 
wicked,  who  are  to  be  exterminated  in  a  sea  of  blood,  are  not 
attractive  in  themselves  and,  when  often  repeated,  become 
monotonous.  The  topic,  indeed,  could  not  be  treated  as  his- 
tory without  displeasing  repetitions.  Perhaps  a  narrative  of 
half  the  length  would  have  been  more  successful. 

Moreover,  the  learned  discussion,  which  Renan  in  his 
earlier  work  had  taken  pains  to  conceal,  is  here  forced  upon 
the  attention.  The  text  is  encumbered  with  a  multitude  of 
Hebrew  words,  phrases  and  proper  names.  Often  the  treat- 
ment is  either  not  sufficiently  detailed  to  present  all  the 

"Vol.  ii,  p.  420. 

430 


HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE  OF  ISRAEL 

steps  in  the  argument,  or  too  detailed  to  be  followed  without 
looking  up  references.  The  reader  is  supposed  to  be  familiar 
with  the  works  of  Reuss,  Graf,  Kuenen,  Noeldeke,  Well- 
hausen,  Stade,  where  he  "will  find  the  explanation  of  many- 
points  that  could  not  be  treated  in  detail  without  repeating 
what  had  already  been  well  said."  ^*  The  author  even  states 
that,  if  he  should  not  live  to  finish  the  fourth  volume  (the 
original  plan  was  for  four  volumes),  he  would  ask  his  pub- 
lishers to  have  one  of  the  numerous  German  works  on  that 
part  of  his  subject  translated  to  complete  the  story.^' 

The  artist  is  obviously  somewhat  oppressed  by  the  scholar, 
and  yet  imaginative  power  is  by  no  means  lacking.  In  spite 
of  the  inferiority  of  the  material,  such  imaginative  power 
appears  both  in  the  general  scheme  and  in  the  vivid  inter- 
pretation of  individual  facts. 

As  might  be  expected,  striking  characters  do  not  furnish 
so  prominent  a  feature  as  in  the  Origins  of  Christianity.  The 
patriarchs  and  such  early  leaders  as  Closes  and  Joshua, 
wrapped  in  the  mist  of  legend,  are  too  shadowy  for  the  grasp 
of  fact;  the  prophets,  too,  though  they  furnish  the  central 
theme  of  the  work,  have  little  distinctness  of  personality ;  and 
the  oriental  despots,  big  and  little,  who  abound  throughout, 
give  the  impression  of  a  gloomy  sameness  of  crime,  tyranny 
and  cruelty.  Perhaps  the  most  individual  figure  is  David, 
the  bold,  rough  warrior  and  adroit  politician,  the  graceful, 
elegant  and  intelligent  hero,  bandit  and  king,  a  ruler  who 
could  profit  by  every  crime  without  ever  directly  committing 
one.  Of  Solomon  the  outline  is  even  more  frankly  a  result  of 
intuition.  ' '  Some  thousand  years  before  Christ  there  reigned 
in  a  little  Syrian  acropolis  a  petty  sovereign,  intelligent,  free 
from  national  prejudices,  understanding  nothing  of  the  true 
mission  of  his  race,  wise  according  to  the  opinion  of  his  age, 
without  being  morally  superior  to  the  average  of  oriental 

"Vol.  i,  p.  XX. 
"  Vol  i,  p.  ix. 

431 


ERNEST  RENAN 

despots  of  every  epoch. "  ^°  A  greater  king  than  Solomon 
was  Ahab,  so  grievously  calumniated  by  the  Jahvist  histo- 
rians, for  he  was  "brave,  intelligent,  moderate,  devoted  to 
the  ideas  of  civilization. ' '  "  We  thus  get  a  few  sketches,  no 
finished  portraits,  for  the  traits  of  the  subjects  are  indistinct 
and  the  colors  faint  from  distance. 

For  vividness  modern  comparisons  are  freely  employed. 
Rameses  II  is  an  Egyptian  Louis  XIV;  David's  limited 
racial  sentiment  was  like  that  of  Abd-el-Kadir ;  the  history 
of  the  world  is  the  history  of  the  murderer,  Troppmann, 
who,  if  he  had  escaped  to  America,  would  have  become  a 
conservative   and  made   a  brilliant  use  of  his   plunder.^^ 

"Vol.  ii,  p.  174. 

"  Vol.  ii,  p.  301. 

*  Troppmann,  a  twenty -year-old  Alsatian,  was  the  chief  figure  in 
a  sensational  murder  trial  in  1869.  On  September  20,  six  corpses, 
those  of  a  mature  woman,  of  a  youth  of  sixteen,  of  three  young  boys 
and  a  little  girl,  were  found  buried  in  a  shallow  trench  in  a  field 
between  the  railroad  station  of  Pantin  and  a  place  called  Quatre 
Chemins.  Every  aspect  of  the  case  was  exploited  by  the  newspapers, 
columns  being  given  to  stories,  letters,  interviews  and  identifications. 
It  was  ascertained  that  the  bodies  were  those  of  the  family  of  Jean 
Kinck,  of  Alsace,  who  had  himself  mysteriously  disappeared.  Three 
or  four  days  after  the  murder,  Troppmann  was  arrested  at  Le  Havre 
while  attempting  to  embark  for  America  under  the  name  of  Fisch,  and 
on  his  person  were  found  bonds,  deeds,  watches  and  other  property 
belonging  to  the  Kincks.  The  evidence  was  gradually  concentrated 
upon  him  as  the  criminal,  but,  being  an  inventive  liar,  he  kept  up 
interest  in  the  affair  by  mystifications  to  the  very  day  of  his  con- 
demnation. It  developed  that  he  had  murdered  Jean  Kinck  at  Watt- 
wilier,  in  August,  robbed  him  and  forged  his  name  to  deeds.  Shortly 
after,  by  forged  letters,  he  had  lured  the  family  to  Paris,  killed  the 
sixteen-year-old  son  first,  and  then  on  the  final  night  butchered  the 
mother  and  the  four  younger  children.  He  was  tried  December  28-31 
in  the  Cour  d 'Assises  de  la  Seine,  in  the  presence  of  unprecedented 
crowds,  including  even  members  of  the  diplomatic  corps.  All  Paris 
was  agog.  The  sober  Debats  itself  gave  as  much  as  two  pages  a  day 
to  the  testimony  at  the  trial  and  a  whole  page  to  the  speeches  of  coun- 
sel. Troppmann  displayed  the  utmost  coolness  throughout  and  lied 
tenaciously  to  the  very  end.  Conviction,  however,  required  only  ten 
minutes'  deliberation,  the  culprit  was  condemned  to  death,  and  on 
January  18,  1870,  he  was  executed.  The  execution  is  recorded  in 
the  Goncourt  Journal  under  date  of  January  19,  1870.  By  1894  Tropp- 
mann was  so  far  forgotten  that  the  allusion  to  him  is  omitted  by  the 
editor  when  printing  a  portion  of  Book  X  in  the  Bevue  des  deux 
Mondes  (January  1). 


HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE  OP  ISRAEL 

Jahve  came  to  be  identical  with  God  just  as  Christ  took  on 
God's  functions  in  the  Middle  Ages  and  just  as  to-day  God 
is  said  to  have  been  taken  out  of  the  schools  because  the 
crucifix  was  removed.  The  tales  about  Solomon,  together 
with  the  Song  of  Songs,  constitute  the  divertissement  and 
the  humorous  part  in  the  great  somber  opera  created  by 
Hebrew  genius.  The  Levitical  Thora  is  not  practical  law, 
but  consists  of  general  indications,  such  as  might  be  elabor- 
ated among  the  companions  of  the  Comte  de  Chambord  or 
discussed  in  Socialist  clubs. 

Such  expressions  may  be  considered  mere  ornaments  or 
asides  to  relieve  the  author 's  mind ;  but  there  is  a  group  of 
comparisons  which  are  of  the  essence  of  the  subject,  and  it 
is  these  that,  in  the  preface  to  his  third  volume,  Renan  up- 
holds against  adverse  criticism.  He,  for  example,  constantly 
equates  the  prophets  with  modem  journalists  and  finds  in 
their  teachings  the  essence  of  modern  Socialism. 

On  the  first  point,  one  quotation  will  suffice.  "Prophet- 
ism  has  real  analogies  with  modern  journalism,  which,  like 
it,  is  an  individual  force  (and  on  the  whole,  beneficial)  along 
side  of  the  government,  the  higher  classes,  the  clergy.  Jew- 
ish prophetism  was  a  journalism  speaking  in  the  name  of 
God.  By  turns  it  saved  and  destroyed  dynasties.  The 
prophets  are  at  once  a  model  for  patriots,  and  the  worst 
enemies  of  their  country. ' '  ^* 

The  relation  of  prophetism  to  socialism  is  based  upon  the 
preoccupation  of  each  with  moral  and  social  questions.  Both 
grow  furious  over  abuses  that  are  inevitable  in  a  great 
organized  society.  Both  declaim  against  the  army,  jeer  at 
patriotism,  proclaim  justice  for  the  people  to  be  the  sole 
desirable  end.  For  both,  where  the  poor  are  victims  and  the 
rich  enjoy  privileges,  there  is  no  fatherland.  In  such  a 
regime  as  they  conceive  there  could  be  no  culture,  no  art,  no 

*Vol.  ii,  p.  486. 

433 


ERNEST  RENAN 

science,  no  philosophy.  The  welfare  of  the  individual  in  his 
little  group  is  all  that  is  sought.  And  who  is  to  protect  this 
welfare  ?  Neither  prophet  nor  socialist  has  found  a  practical 
answer,  but  such  visionaries  are  incapable  of  disillusionment. 
"After  each  failure,  they  begin  again;  no  one  has  yet  found 
the  solution,  but  it  will  be  found.  The  idea  never  comes  to 
them  that  the  solution  does  not  exist. ' '  ^°  These  fanatics 
may  succeed  in  destroying  their  state,  as  the  prophets  de- 
stroyed theirs,  they  may  succeed  in  bringing  upon  the  world 
a  new  medievalism,  but  equilibrium  will  finally  be  restored. 
"The  movement  of  the  world  is  the  result  of  the  parallelo- 
gram of  two  forces,  liberalism  on  the  one  hand,  and  social- 
ism on  the  other — liberalism  in  origin  Greek,  socialism  in 
origin  Hebrew — liberalism  impelling  toward  the  largest  hu- 
man development,  socialism  taking  account  above  all  of  strict 
justice  and  of  the  welfare  of  the  greatest  number,  which  is 
often  sacrificed  in  reality  to  the  needs  of  civilization  and  of 
the  state." 31 

The  contrast  between  Hebraism  and  Hellenism  here  indi- 
cated greets  us  on  the  first  page  of  the  preface  to  volume  one 
and  is  still  before  us  on  the  last  page  of  the  final  volume.  If 
there  were  anything  that  could  have  attracted  Renan  from 
the  glory  of  Israel,  it  would  have  been  the  glory  of  Greece. 
* '  Greece  raised  the  eternal  framework  of  civilization ;  to  this 
Israel  brought  an  addition,  a  capital  correction,  the  care  for 
the  weak,  the  obstinate  demand  for  individual  justice. ' '  '* 
Yet  sometimes  Israel  seems  mean  in  comparison.  "Esdras 
and  Nehemiah  coincide  with  the  age  of  Pericles.  They  are 
contemporary  with  Herodotus,  -^schylus,  Socrates,  Hippoc- 
rates. While  Israel  accepts  with  joy  the  yoke  of  the  Ache- 
menides,  while  Jahve  is  fully  occupied  in  turning  the  heart 
of  a  great  king  to  favor  his  people,  while  a  Jew  is  proud  to 

»  Vol.  iii,  p.  497. 
«Vol.  ii,  p.  541. 
"Vol.  iii,  p.  251. 

434 


HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE  OF  ISRAEL 

be  cupbearer,  valet,  spy  to  the  king  of  Persia,  Greece  resists 
to  the  death,  defeats  Darius,  Xerxes,  Artaxerxes,  and  saves 
civilization. ' '  ^^  But  Israel,  too,  had  its  heroic  age,  and  fur- 
nishes one  of  the  two  streams  from  which  the  refreshment  of 
mankind  has  been  drawn. 

Israel  had,  like  Greece,  its  epic  collection  in  this  primitive  book 
(The  Wars  of  Jahve)  of  heroic  songs  and  deeds,  certain  parts  of 
which,  recognizable  still  in  the  later  books,  have  made  the  literary 
fortune  of  the  Bible.  Answering  the  same  ideal,  the  Bible  and 
Homer  hare  not  been  supplanted.  They  remain  the  two  poles 
of  the  poetic  world;  from  them  the  plastic  arts  will  continue  in- 
definitely to  choose  their  subjects;  for  the  material  detail  in  them, 
without  which  there  is  no  art,  is  always  noble.  The  heroes  of  these 
beautiful  stories  are  youths,  strong  and  healthy,  a  bit  superstitious, 
passionate,  simple  and  great.  Together  with  the  exquisite  stories 
of  the  patriarchal  age,  these  anecdotes  of  the  period  of  the  Judges 
constitute  the  charm  of  the  Bible.  The  narrators  of  later  epochs, 
the  Hebrew  romancers,  even  the  Christian  annalists,  take  all 
their  colors  from  this  magic  palette.  The  two  great  sources  of 
inconscient  and  impersonal  beauty  were  thus  opened  at  about 
the  same  time,  900  B.  C,  among  the  Aryans  and  among  the  Semites. 
Since  then,  we  have  lived  on  them.  The  literary  history  of  the 
world  is  the  history  of  a  double  cun-ent  which  descends  from  the 
Horaerides  to  Virgil,  from  the  biblical  story-tellers  to  Jesus  or, 
if  you  wish,  to  the  Evangelists.  These  old  tales  of  patriarchal 
tribes,  along  with  the  Greek  epopee,  have  remained  the  great 
enchantment  of  later  ages,  formed  esthetically  from  a  less  pure 
clay.** 

IV 

Such  are  the  main  currents  of  thought  in  these  volumes. 
A  few  quotations  will  illustrate  the  nature  of  the  obiter  dicta 
in  which  our  author  is  so  inexhaustibly  rich. 

Generally  in  history  man  is  punished  for  the  good  he  does  and 
rewarded  for  the  bad.     (Vol.  i,  p.  411.) 

*»Vol.  iv,  p.  192. 
"Vol.  ii,  p.  235. 

435 


ERNEST  RENAN 

In  consequence  of*  the  enormous  egotism  of  men,  giving  to  one 
what  has  been  stolen  from  another  is  a  game  that  nearly  always 
succeeds.     (Vol.  i,  p.  437.) 

Order,  as  I  have  often  said,  has  been  created  in  the  world  by 
the  brigand  turned  policeman.     (Vol.  ii,  p.  16.) 

The  Bible  is  believed  because  of  an  appearance  of  infantine 
candor,  according  to  the  false  idea  that  truth  comes  from  the 
mouths  of  children;  what  in  reality  comes  from  the  mouth  of  the 
child  is  falsehood.     (Vol.  ii,  p.  221.) 

Those  paid  by  drafts  on  a  future  life  suffer  more  patiently  than 
the  disillusioned  the  iniquities  inherent  in  human  society.  (Vol. 
ii,  p.  434.) 

Each  human  development  has  its  hour  of  perfect  accord,  when 
all  parts  of  the  national  genius  strike  their  highest  note  in  unison. 
(Vol.  iii,  p.  68.) 

Not  only  is  virtue  not  rewarded  here  below;  it  may  almost  be 
said  that  it  is  punished.  It  is  baseness  that  is  rewarded;  for  it 
are  all  the  profits;  if  this  were  not  so,  the  clever  would  turn  their 
backs  on  it.  Heroic  virtue,  steadfast  unto  death,  finds  in  such 
heroism  itself  the  exclusion  of  all  possible  remuneration.  (Vol. 
iii,  p.  80.) 

There  are  men  before  whom  popularity  runs,  almost  without 
being  sought,  whom  opinion  takes,  so  to  speak,  by  the  hand  and 
whom  it  orders  to  commit  crimes  in  view  of  a  program  it  imposes 
on  them.  Such  was  Bonaparte;  such  was  David.  The  criminal, 
in  this  case,  is  primarily  the  crowd,  a  true  Lady  Macbeth,  who, 
having  chosen  its  favorite,  intoxicates  him  with  the  tragic  words: 
"Thou  Shalt  be  King."     (Vol.  i,  p.  415.) 

Among  peoples  .  devoted  to  an  idea,  the  law  is  made  by  a 
minority;  the  French  Revolution  was  the  wager  of  a  small  number 
of  fanatics,  who  succeeded  in  creating  the  belief  that  they  had 
carried  the  nation.  They  alone  are  spoken  of;  the  flock  of  sheep 
serves  but  to  add  numbers.  History  concerns  itself  merely  with 
the  ambitious  and  the  passionate.     (Vol.  iii,  p.  391.) 

Liberty  is  a  creation  of  modem  times.  It  is  the  consequence  of 
an  idea  not  possessed  by  antiquity,  that  of  the  State  protecting 

436 


HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE  OF  ISRAEL 

the  most  opposite  forms  of  human  activity  and  remaining  neutral 
in  matters  of  conscience,  taste  and  feeling.    (Vol.  iv,  p.  82.) 

The  final  purpose  of  France  was  the  Revolution.  Those  who 
contributed  to  the  making  of  France,  even  the  least  revolutionary 
of  men,  labored  for  the  Revolution.     (Vol.  iv,  p.  132.) 

In  costly  governments  the  populace  sees  the  tax  it  pays,  not 
the  result  obtained  from  the  tax.     (Vol.  v,  p.  283.) 

The  ordinary  tactics  of  clerical  parties  is  to  drive  the  civil  au- 
thority to  its  last  hold,  and  then  to  represent  as  atrocious  violence 
the  acts  of  firmness  they  have  provoked.     (Vol.  ii,  p.  293.) 

All  were  massacred  and  the  city  was  burnt.  Very  odious  indeed. 
But  there  is  no  race  whose  ancestors  have  acted  better.  (Vol.  i, 
p.  353.) 

A  humble  military  man  is  a  contradiction.     (Vol.  iii,  p.  279.) 

When  a  nation  has  made  the  Bible,  it  may  be  pardoned  the 
Talmud.     (Vol.  iv,  p.  129.) 

The  enemies  of  the  clericals  have  no  right  to  die  without  the 
intervention  of  heaven.     (Vol.  iv,  p.  388.) 

Germany,  by  her  lofty  philosophy,  by  the  voice  of  her  men 
of  genius,  proclaimed  better  than  any  other  race  the  absolute, 
impersonal,  supreme  character  of  the  Divinity.  When  she  be- 
came a  nation,  she  was  led  by  the  way  of  all  flesh  to  particularize 
God.  The  Emperor  William  I  often  spoke  of  unser  Gott  and  of 
his  confidence  in  the  God  of  the  Germans.  Nationality  and 
philosophy  have  indeed  little  in  common.  The  national  spirit, 
among  other  pettinesses,  has  the  pretension  of  possessing  a  god. 
...  A  nation  is  always  egotistical.  It  wants  the  God  of  heaven 
and  earth  to  have  no  other  thought  than  to  serve  its  interests.  .  .  . 
Strange  contradiction,  frightful  blasphemy!  God  is  the  posses- 
sion of  no  people,  of  no  individual.  As  well  say:  My  absolutCf 
my  infinite,  my  Supreme  Being.     (Vol.  i,  p.  264.) 

Poor  humanity  is  so  formed  that  it  obtains  good  only  at  the 
cost  of  evil,  truth  only  by  passing  through  error.    (Vol,  ii,  p.  291.) 

Human  things  are  composed  of  matter  and  spirit.  Liberty  and 
chains,  that  which  excites  and  that  which  restrains,  the  sublime 

437 


ERNEST  EENAN 

and  the  commonplace  are  equally  necessary  to  construct  a  grand 
combination  that  will  live.     (Vol.  iii,  p.  214.) 

Century  after  century  we  perceive  such  transformations.  We 
see  the  brigand  of  AduUam  and  of  Siklag  take  little  by  little 
the  qualities  of  a  saint.  He  is  made  the  author  of  the  Psalms, 
the  sacred  singer,  the  type  of  the  future  Savior.  Jesus  must  be 
a  son  of  David.  The  Evangelical  biography  is  falsified  on  a  mul- 
titude of  points  by  the  idea  that  the  life  of  the  Messiah  should 
reproduce  the  traits  of  that  of  David.  Pious  souls  soothed  by 
the  sentiments  of  resignation  and  tender  melancholy  found  in  the 
most  beautiful  of  liturgical  books,  believe  themselves  in  com- 
munion with  this  bandit;  humanity  believes  in  final  justice  on  the 
testimony  of  David,  who  never  thought  of  it,  and  of  the  Sibyl, 
who  never  existed.  Teste  David  cum  Sibylla!  0  divine  comedy! 
(Vol.  i,  pp.  450-451.) 

Budding  Christianity  was  soiled  with  these  chimeras.  We  re- 
gret the  fact,  but  who  knows  if  it  would  have  succeeded  without 
them?  Weakness  is  the  condition  of  strength;  popular  achieve- 
ments are  never  accomplished  without  follies  and  excesses.  (Vol. 
iv,  p.  170.) 

In  religious  history  the  import  of  a  text  is,  not  what  the  au- 
thor meant  to  say,  but  what  the  needs  of  the  time  made  him  say. 
The  religious  history  of  mankind  is  made  up  of  mistranslations. 
(Vol.  iv,  p.  193.) 

Mankind  is  so  made  that  the  diverse  elements  of  its  composition 
are  reciprocal  enemies.  When  one  part  rises,  another  declines. 
A  moral  people  is  almost  always  hostile  to  science;  I  fear,  on  the 
other  hand,  that  what  we  scholars  accomplish  does  not  much  serve 
the  moral  progress  of  the  masses.  The  morality  of  the  populace  de- 
mands enormous  sacrifices  of  the  reason;  the  progress  of  reason 
is  injurious  to  the  morality  of  the  masses,  who  are  ruled  by  in- 
stinct.    (Vol.  iv,  pp.  359,  360.) 

No  one  knows  what  he  founds.  Jesus  thought  he  was  founding 
the  religion  of  the  spirit;  the  religious  system  sprung  from  him 
has  been  as  superstitious  as  any  other;  the  Jesuits  have  named 
themselves  the  Company  of  Jesus.     (Vol.  iv,  p.  130.) 

Pietists  are  essentially  persecutors;  they  loudly  complain  when 
they  are  the  victims;  and  yet  they  find  it  very  bad  to  be  hindered 

438 


HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE  OP  ISRAEL 

from  persecuting  others;  they  are  so  sure  they  are  right.     (Vol. 
iii,  p.  120.) 

The  Protestants  suppressed  masses  and  indulgences,  but  re- 
tained and  even  exaggerated  the  inspiration  of  the  Bible  and 
the  merits  of  the  blood  of  Jesus  Christ.  These  distinctions,  which 
seem  naive  to  us,  are  the  conditions  of  active  force.  Poor  human 
species !  How  it  longs  for  the  good !  But  how  ill,  on  the  whole,  it 
is  made  for  truth!     (Vol.  iii,  p.  189.) 

He  who  fears  self-deception  and  calls  no  one  blind;  who  does 
not  know  precisely  what  is  the  end  of  humanity  and  yet  loves 
his  fellow-men;  who  seeks  truth,  yet  doubting,  and  says  to  his 
adversary:  "Perhaps  you  see  better  than  I";  who,  in  short,  al- 
lows others  the  full  liberty  he  takes  for  himself;  he  can  sleep 
tranquilly  and  await  in  peace  the  day  of  judgment — if  there  be 
one.      (Vol.  iii,  p.  280.) 

He  had  no  right  to  kill  one  less  heroic  than  himself.  Each  is 
judge  of  his  own  conscience;  he  should  not  impose  his  principles 
on  others.  But,  let  us  hasten  to  say,  there  would  be  no  religious 
hero  under  such  circumstances.  Godefroy  de  Bouillon,  Simon  de 
Montfort,  Charles  d'Anjou  needed  to  believe  their  enemies  destined 
to  hell.  We  are  too  liberal  and  too  well-bred  to  express  ourselves 
so  absolutely.  I  believe  that  M.  de  Mun  is  at  least  five-sixths 
wrong.  But  my  philosophy  teaches  me  that  he  must  be  right  for 
the  other  sixth,  and  if  I  were  confronted  with  one  of  his  partisans, 
my  good  manners  would  oblige  me  to  seek  this  sixth,  where  I  could 
agree  with  him.  Judas  Maccabeus  did  well  not  to  be  so  well-bred. 
(Vol.  iv,  p.  339.) 

All  religions,  just  as  all  philosophies,  are  vain;  but  religion  is 
not  vain,  nor  is  philosophy.     (Vol.  i,  p.  xxviii.) 

Philo  and  Josephus  were  men  of  letters,  and  men  of  letters 
accomplish  little.     (Vol.  v,  p.  365.) 

A  prince  is  necessarily  a  man  of  the  world,  following  the  fashions 
and  making  them;  he  cannot  live  with  gross,  ill-educated  people; 
he  is  constrained  to  belong  to  high  society.  .  .  .  More  than  one 
evolution  of  this  sort  has  occurred  among  the  parvenus  of  present- 
day  democracy.  Power  is  a  civil  and  polished  thing;  whatever 
the  road  by  which  a  man  reaches  it,  he  becomes  at  once  well-bred; 
at  least  he  feels  the  need  of  living  with  well-bred  people.  (Vol. 
V,  p.  50.) 

439 


ERNEST  RENAN 

Religion  is  a  necessary  imposture.  Tlie  grossest  means  of 
throwing  dust  in  the  eyes  cannot  be  neglected  with  such  a  silly 
race  as  the  human  species,  created  as  it  is  for  error,  so  that,  even 
when  it  admits  the  truth,  it  never  admits  it  for  good  reasons. 
(Vol.  V,  p.  106.) 

The  impatience  of  men  can  do  nothing  to  advance  the  progress 
of  things.  At  bottom  the  beni  elohim  are  right;  the  creation  is 
good  and  does  great  honor  to  the  Eternal ;  the  objections  of  Satan 
against  the  works  of  God  are  essentially  misplaced;  but  milliards 
of  centuries  will  probably  be  necessary  in  order  that  a  just  God 
should  be  a  reality.    Let  us  wait.     (Vol.  iii,  p.  86.) 

Each  answers  (i.  e.,  in  favor  of  liberalism  or  socialism)  accord- 
ing to  his  moral  temperament,  and  that  is  enough.  The  universe, 
which  never  says  its  last  word  to  \is,  reaches  its  end  through  the 
infinite  variety  of  its  germs.  What  Jahve  wills  always  happens. 
Let  us  be  tranquil;  if  we  are  among  those  who  are  deceived,  who 
work  against  the  grain  of  the  supreme  will,  it  is  not  very  im- 
portant. Mankind  is  one  of  the  innumerable  ant  hills  in  space 
in  which  the  experiments  of  reason  are  being  carried  on;  if  we 
fail,  others  will  succeed.     (Vol.  ii,  p.  542.) 

The  objections  to  materialism  will  never  be  silenced.  There 
is  no  case  of  a  thought  or  feeling  without  a  brain,  or  with  a 
brain  in  process  of  decomposition.  On  the  other  hand,  man  will 
never  be  persuaded  that  his  destiny  is  like  that  of  animals.  Even 
if  it  should  be  proved,  he  would  not  believe  it.  This  is  a  thought 
that  should  give  us  courage  to  think  freely.  Our  necessary  be- 
liefs are  beyond  reach.  Mankind  will  listen  to  us  only  so  far 
as  our  systems  fit  its  duties  and  its  instincts.  Let  us  say  what 
we  think;  woman  will  none  the  less  continue  her  joyous  song, 
children  will  not  for  our  words  be  oppressed  with  care,  nor  will 
youth  be  less  intoxicated;  the  virtuous  man  will  remain  virtuous; 
the  Carmelite  nun  will  continue  to  macerate  her  flesh,  the  mother 
to  sacrifice  herself,  the  bird  to  sing,  the  bee  to  make  honey.  (Vol. 
V,  pp.  182,  183.) 

The  immediate  future  is  obscure.  It  is  not  certain  that  it  shall 
have  assurance  of  light.  Credulity  has  deep  roots.  Socialism, 
with  the  complicity  of  Catholicism,  may  introduce  a  new  Middle 
Age,  barbarians,  churches,  eclipses  of  liberty  and  individuality, 
of  civilization,  in  short.    But  the  final  future  is  sure.    The  future 

440 


HISTORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE  OP  ISRAEL 

certainly  will  believe  no  longer  in  the  supernatural;  for  the 
supernatural  is  not  true,  and  all  that  is  not  true  is  condemaed 
to  die.  Nothing  lasts  but  truth.  This  poor  truth  seems  indeed 
abandoned,  served  as  it  is  by  an  imperceptible  minority.  Be  tran- 
quil; it  will  trimnph.  All  that  serves  truth  is  added  together  and 
preserved  like  a  small  capital,  but  it  is  held;  no  part  of  the  little 
treasure  is  lost.  All  that  is  false,  on  the  contrary,  falls  to  pieces. 
The  false  founds  nothing;  while  the  little  edifice  of  truth  is  o£ 
steel  and  rises  forever.     (Vol.  v,  pp.  420,  421.) 


By  the  time  Renan  had  completed  his  work,  the  views  of 
Hebrew  history  held  by  him  had  ceased  to  excite  surprise  by 
their  novelty.  Biblical  criticism,  in  its  general  outline,  had 
already  reached  the  public.  The  distinction  between  sacred 
and  profane  history  could  no  longer  be  maintained.  The 
violence  of  antagonism  was  quieted.  "Since  I  began  forty 
years  ago  to  speak  to  the  public  of  religious  history,  serious 
changes  have  taken  place.  There  is  no  longer  dispute  on  the 
foundation  itself  of  religion,  and  that,  in  my  opinion,  is  a 
very  sensible  progress.  It  is  to  recognize  that  in  the  infinite 
there  is  room  for  every  one  to  shape  his  romance. ' ' '' 

Whatever  Renan 's  dreams  of  the  infinite  may  be,  this 
work  is  not  a  romance.  Yet  it  is,  as  has  already  been  said,  a 
creation  of  the  imagination.  The  author  is  even  more  de- 
tached from  his  subject  than  he  was  in  the  Origins  of  Chris- 
tianity; he  stands  outside  and  observes.  Sometimes  his  view 
seems  pessimistic,  but  he  more  often  dwells  on  the  good  than 
on  the  bad.  If,  toward  the  end,  the  old  man  sometimes  mur- 
murs '  *  Vanity  of  vanities, ' '  he  does  it  in  a  genial,  rather  than 
in  a  somber  tone.  In  fact,  the  last  two  volumes  are  rather 
more  lively  in  style  than  the  first  three.  "We  are  left  with  an 
overwhelming  impression  of  fatality  in  the  course  of  events, 
an  impression  caused,  as  in  a  Shakespearean  tragedy,  by  a 

"VoL  i,  p.  XXV. 

441 


ERNEST  RENAN 

series  of  apparent  accidents.  If  a  single  step  in  the  action 
were  missing  or  were  different,  the  result  could  not  have  been 
attained.  The  future  of  humanity  rests  so  frequently  on  a 
cast  of  the  dice,  and  yet  the  winner  of  the  cast  is  pre- 
destined. What  Jahve  wills  always  happens.  There  is  a 
vast,  inexplicable  purpose  in  human  affairs. 

Renan  felt  that,  in  order  to  be  consequent,  he  ought  to 
have  begun  with  the  History  of  the  People  of  Israel.  We  are 
glad  that,  attracted  by  Jesus  and  charmed  by  the  dream  of  a 
kingdom  of  God  whose  law  should  be  love,  the  historian 
plunged  into  the  midst  of  his  subject  with  the  Life  of  Jesus, 
and  treated  the  first  century  and  a  half  of  Christianity  be- 
fore taking  up  the  earlier  epoch.  The  order  in  which  the 
books  were  written  is  the  order  in  which  they  should  be 
read.  It  is  the  story  of  the  final  achievement  that  gives  sig- 
nificance to  the  evolution  that  precedes.  And  while  the  real 
climax  of  the  whole  is  the  Life  of  Jesus,  the  first  of  the  series, 
it  nevertheless  seems  entirely  appropriate  that  the  old 
scholar  should  joyously  chant  his  Nunc  Dimittis  after  he  had 
written  the  final  words  of  his  less  vivid,  but  by  no  means 
shrunken,  history.  These  final  words  look  to  the  future  of 
the  world  he  was  ready  to  leave:  "Israel  will  not  be  van- 
quished unless  military  force  should  once  again  take  pos- 
session of  the  world,  and  found  anew  servitude,  forced  labor, 
feudalism.  This  is  by  no  means  probable.  After  centuries 
of  struggles  between  national  rivalries,  humanity  will  be 
peacably  organized;  the  sum  of  evil  will  be  greatly  dimin- 
ished ;  with  very  few  exceptions,  every  one  will  be  content  to 
live.  With  some  inevitable  modifications,  the  Jewish  pro- 
gram will  be  accomplished ;  without  a  compensating  heaven, 
justice  will  really  exist  on  the  earth." 


CHAPTER  XIII 


C»NCLUSION 


After  Renan  had  ripened,  the  principal  features  of  his 
character  were  amiability  and  benevolence.  He  could  turn  a 
blackguard  out  of  his  house  with  the  utmost  severity,  but  his 
general  rule  was,  in  spite  of  unhappy  experiences,  to  regard 
every  man  as  meritorious  until  he  was  proved  otherwise. 
Even  ia  poor  scholarship,  he  could  forgive  everything  but 
arrogance  and  charlatanism.  Always  using  his  influence  to- 
ward concord  and  tolerance,  he  sought  to  eliminate  personali- 
ties and  violent  polemic.  "We  seem  to  see  him  still,"  said 
Barbier  de  Maynard,^  "seated  in  the  same  place,  putting  his 
almost  universal  knowledge  at  the  service  of  our  scientific 
discussions,  and  when,  by  chance,  though  rarely,  they  be- 
came a  little  too  lively,  intervening  with  words  full  of  good 
humor  and  delicacy,  often  even  with  a  smile,  that  kindly 
smile  that  seemed  to  say  to  the  antagonists :  '  Softly,  dear  col- 
leagues, beware  of  treating  one  another  as  ignoramuses;  the 
public  will  perhaps  take  you  at  your  word,  or  at  least  laugh 
at  your  expense.'  " 

The  charm  of  old  age  is  its  mellowness,  its  indulgence 
shown  to  others,  its  placidity  in  the  midst  of  the  world's 
turbulence,  its  tranquil  acceptance  of  things  as  they  must  be. 
To  some,  this  charm,  which  permeates  most  of  Renan 's  later 
writings,  seems  a  relaxation  of  moral  fiber.  They  prefer  the 
eager  and  strenuous  youth  of  The  Future  of  Science  and  the 
"Theology  of  Beranger."    Even  in  his  latest  days,  Renan 

*Soci6t6  Asiatique,  November  11,  1892. 

443 


ERNEST  RENAN 

was  occasionally  an  excitable  talker.  Brandes  in  1870  found 
in  him  no  nuance,  but  animation,  vigor,  abundance;  and 
Mary  Robinson  presents  for  the  final  period  an  almost  pas- 
sionate dinner-table  outburst  against  spiritualism.  In  his 
public  utterances  this  volcanic  nature  is  suppressed  by  rea- 
son, and  even  in  talk  it  largely  subsided  as  he  grew  old. 

In  any  man's  character  it  is  only  fair  to  separate  what 
is  voluntary  from  what  is  capricious,  and  in  his  thought 
the  fundamental  and  habitual  from  the  fugitive,  variable 
and  accessory.  In  Renan  we  find  an  almost  complete  neglect 
of  the  things  he  did  not  care  for.  About  the  professorship, 
the  Corpus,  the  administration  of  the  College,  he  was  in- 
flexible ;  money-getting,  society,  popular  opinion,  such  things 
were  treated  with  negligence.  A  permanent  feature  of  Re- 
nan's  life  was  his  devotion  to  the  ideal,  with  a  correspond- 
ing aversion  to  the  mechanical,  the  material,  the  merely 
useful.  Accessory  to  this  was  a  spirit  somewhat  akin  to 
that  of  the  juvenile  Romanticists  when  they  sought  to 
"epater  le  bourgeois,"  a  late  example  being  furnished  by 
the  Prologue  in  Heaven.  Much  of  his  caprice,  indeed,  is  to 
be  laid  to  the  account  of  a  revulsion  which  drove  him  from 
any  distasteful  excess  toward  its  opposite,  so  that,  while 
by  principle  moderate,  he  is  apt  to  express  extreme  and 
unconditional  opinions.  Scherer  objects  to  his  practice  of 
making  an  unqualified  statement  and  then  an  unqualified 
statement  of  the  opposite,  a  practice  that  excited  the  public, 
but  at  length  wearied  it.  This  mode  of  expression  Renan 
might  have  defended  as  according  with  his  theory,  but  it 
doubtless  had  its  roots  in  his  mental  constitution. 

Some  readers,  as  a  result,  got  the  idea  that  he  was  unstable 
in  both  character  and  opinions.  They  were  fond  of  quoting 
his  maxim:  "Woe  to  him  who  does  not  contradict  himself 
at  least  once  a  day."  The  maxim  obviously  applies  to  the 
limbs  and  outward  flourishes  of  truth,  and  not  to  essentials, 
in  regard  to  which  Renan  was  as  obstinate  as  a  granite 

444 


CONCLUSION 

rock.  His  main  conceptions  are  iterated  a  hundred  times 
and  are  no  more  uncertain  or  wavering  than  the  answers 
in  a  catechism. 

It  is  clear  that  Renan  started  upon  his  career  with  the 
intention  of  becoming  the  apostle  of  a  new  religion,  which 
was  to  substitute  the  results  of  scientific  investigation  for 
dogma.  The  old  formulas  might  be  retained,  but  they  were 
to  submit  to  a  new  interpretation,  and  none  of  them  was 
to  be  considered  more  than  an  approximation  to  the  truth, 
God  was  the  universe  in  the  process  of  becoming,  striving 
blindly  toward  full  consciousness.  Negatively  considered, 
God  was  not  a  magnified  man,  and  did  not  interfere  in  the 
working  of  the  laws  of  things.  Providence  was  a  general 
evolution  toward  some  far-off,  inscrutable,  divine  result, 
not  the  manipulation  of  particular  persons  and  units.  Im- 
mortality was  not  individual,  but  the  permanence  of  ideas 
and  achievements.  Religious  exercises  might  be  replaced 
among  the  highly  intelligent  by  scientific  investigations,  and 
the  laws  thus  discovered  would  reorganize  society  and  bring 
about  the  greatest  possible  elevation  and  spiritual  develop- 
ment of  the  human  race. 

In  these  ideas  Renan  never  varied.  The  impossibility 
of  propagating  a  new  religion,  and  particularly  this  new 
religion,  became  obvious  to  him  even  in  the  course  of  his 
first  Italian  journey.  An  apostolate  was  thereafter  unthink- 
able. But  the  ideas  remained,  and  they  were  expounded, 
with  their  corollaries  and  connections,  in  his  periodical  es- 
says. Duty  and  all  disinterested  endeavor  for  beauty  and 
truth  are  uniformly  regarded  as  divine  instincts,  impulses 
that  reveal  the  infinite  to  man.  These  are  permanent,  and 
independent  of  creeds  or  reasonings.  The  doubts  expressed 
on  this  subject  in  two  or  three  late  compositions  constitute 
the  only  serious  contradiction  in  Renan 's  thinking. 

That  he  should  utter  diametrically  opposed  statements  is 
by  no  means  evidence  of  inconsistency.    Formulas  are  merely 

445 


ERNEST  RENAN 

the  means  by  which  our  minds  do  their  work.  In  each 
there  may  be  truth,  but  never  the  entire  truth,  for  truth  is 
infinite  and  as  a  whole  inexpressible.  A  man  who  clings 
to  a  dogma  simply  blinds  himself  to  the  contradictions  his 
dogma  involves.  He,  indeed,  is  the  truly  inconsistent  thinker. 
In  a  similar  way,  logic  is  useful  only  in  a  limited  sphere,  and 
within  this  limited  sphere  Renan's  logic  is  inexorable.  Ap- 
plied to  universals,  our  syllogisms  lead  us  inevitably  to  A=A. 
Abstract  philosophy,  therefore,  provides  mere  partial  hy- 
potheses, and  religion  is  nothing  but  a  feeling  for  the  indefi- 
nite expressed  in  symbols.  Let  us  view  such  part  of  reality 
as  our  organism  allows  us  to  perceive,  appreciating  always 
that  we  see  only  one  side  of  a  small  part  at  a  time,  and  that 
therefore,  when  we  speak  about  it,  our  expression  must  be 
partial,  and,  to  that  extent,  false.  Opposites  are  necessary, 
there  must  be  no  exclusion,  except  for  the  moment,  and 
truth,  so  far  as  we  can  attain  it,  will  lie  in  the  nuance. 

To  a  mind  so  open  and  eager  as  Renan's,  every  phase  of 
reality  was  attractive.  He  could  have  devoted  himself  to 
physical  science  as  readily  as  to  history,  and  the  history  of 
Greece  would  have  been  as  attractive  as  the  history  of  the 
Jews.  His  strong  determination  is  nowhere  more  evident 
than  in  his  voluntary  limitation  of  his  main  endeavor  to  the 
one  subject.  He  selected  his  life  work  and  then  he  per- 
formed it  without  the  slightest  deviation.  In  his  other  writ- 
ings, he  either  responded  to  what  he  considered  the  passing 
call  of  duty  or  he  let  his  mind  play  by  way  of  relaxation.  It 
is  perfectly  legitimate  for  a  man  to  be  a  dilettante,  but 
Renan  was  not  a  dilettante. 

He  apparently  devoted  little  time  to  current  literature.  It 
would  be  hard  to  find  a  celebrated  author  who  digresses  so 
widely  over  so  many  fields  and  who  at  the  same  time  refers 
to  so  few  contemporary  works,  whether  of  poetry,  drama, 
fiction,  history,  politics  or  philosophy.  His  correspondence, 
too,  contains  hardly  a  reference  to  any  general  reading  j  of 

446 


CONCLUSION 

this  sort  one  book  only  is  mentioned  to  Berthelot,  Quinet's 
Merlin,  and  when  Berthelot  opens  his  friend 's  copy,  he  finds 
many  leaves  uncut.^  If  Renan  dreamed  of  a  period  of  old 
age  in  which  he  might  give  up  work  and  doze  away  his  hours 
over  the  novel  of  the  day,*  that  period  never  came.  The 
slight  attention  he  gave  to  such  matters  is  a  striking  manifes- 
tation of  his  self-centered  concentration.  Perhaps  his  early 
distaste  for  the  literature  of  the  salon  persisted,  but  it  seems 
more  likely  that  his  interest  was  so  intently  fixed  on  his  own 
group  of  topics  that  he  had  none  left  over  for  a  great  variety 
of  things  that  might  interest  other  people.  If  he  had  been 
gifted  with  three  or  four  lives,  the  French  Revolution, 
Athens,  Brittany,  Chinese  literature,  might  have  attracted 
him ;  a  history  of  his  own  times,  never. 

History,  in  his  view,  presented  a  section  of  the  evolution 
of  the  consciousness  of  the  universe,  an  evolution  beginning 
with  the  atom  and  continuing  through  the  formation  of  the 
planetary  system  down  to  the  present.  Humanity,  like  mat- 
ter, was  a  vast  homogeneous  mass,  containing  germs  that 
operated  through  their  own  inner  forces  to  bring  about 
diversified  results.  Some  such  germs  grouped  themselves  in 
Greece  to  give  birth  to  poetry,  philosophy  and  art ;  some  in 
Rome  to  develop  law  and  politics ;  some  in  Palestine  to  pro- 
duce the  agitation  that  made  religion.  These  germs  de- 
stroyed the  nations  in  which  they  fermented,  but  they  pene- 
trated and  permeated  the  entire  mass.  It  was  the  beginnings 
of  this  fermentation  that  Renan  preferred  to  study,  begin- 
nings that  were  obscure,  the  individual  facts  being  uncertain, 
but  the  general  character  of  the  epoch  being  visible  to  the 
diligent,  enlightened,  and  sympathetic  seeker.  Here,  indeed, 
conjecture  often  takes  the  place  of  fact  and  the  artist  tri- 
umphs over  the  scholar,  but  nothing  is  gratuitous  and  we  are 
glad  to  have  such  competent  rearrangement  of  confused  f rag- 

■  October  4  and  November  8,  1860. 
'FevMlM  dStoohSes,  p.  123. 

447 


ERNEST  RENAN 

ments  and  such  ingenious  filling  of  blank  spaces,  even  if 
absolute  certitude  is  lacking. 

It  might  seem  as  if  this  use  of  conjecture  and  divination 
were  out  of  harmony  with  the  rigid  scholarship  which  Renan 
professed.  But  the  limits  of  scholarship  have  a  general  re- 
semblance to  the  limits  of  logic ;  there  is  a  region  beyond,  and 
this  is  to  be  reached  only  through  the  poetic  faculties.  The 
recent  science  of  comparative  philology  opened  such  marvel- 
ous vistas  into  untraveled  realms  and  so  changed  received 
ideas  that  Renan  was  enraptured.  He  was  seized  with  a  pas- 
sion for  the  primitive.  He  knew  well  enough  how  small  a 
handful  of  dry  facts  he  possessed,  but  they  seemed  to  him 
sufficient  for  an  artistic  reconstruction.  At  the  best,  the  re- 
sults must  be  uncertain,  and  a  critical  procedure  that  takes 
the  middle  path  between  accepting  everything  and  rejecting 
everything  has  the  chances  in  its  favor.  At  any  rate,  it  was 
the  method  in  harmony  with  Renan 's  nature,  a  nature  which 
sought  moderation  in  life  and  politics,  as  well  as  in  erudi- 
tion. 

An  intelligent  reader  who  has  no  special  knowledge  can 
readily  discount  hazardous  statements.  A  fair  example  from 
the  Life  of  Jesus  is  the  story  of  the  Samaritan  woman  at  the 
well  of  Jacob.  (P.  243.)  In  a  note  Renan  points  out  that  no 
one,  unless  it  were  either  Jesus  or  the  woman,  could  have  re- 
ported the  words  there  spoken  and  that  the  anecdote  (John, 
iv.  21-23)  is  probably  (others  would  say  certainly)  not  his- 
torical, though  correctly  representing  the  attitude  of  Jesus. 
On  the  following  page  he  treats  the  anecdote  as  a  fact.  But 
it  really  makes  no  difference.  The  conclusion  drawn,  that 
this  is  "absolute  religion,"  does  not  depend  on  the  truth  of 
any  incidents.  Few  doubt  that  Jesus  taught  his  disciples  to 
worship  "in  spirit  and  in  truth,"  rather  than  to  respect 
Jerusalem  or  Samaria  as  holy  places.  The  general  impression 
stands,  even  if  groups  of  details  may  have  no  basis  in  fact. 

The  process  of  measuring  Renan  with  a  yardstick  is  wholly 

448 


CONCLUSION 

unsatisfactory.  The  two  tests  most  commonly  applied  are 
the  metaphysical  and  the  philological.  The  results  could 
readily  have  been  foreseen,  if  Kenan's  warnings  had  been 
heeded.  In  metaphysics  we  are  certain  that  all  our  solutions 
are  uncertain,  we  know  that  ultimate  truths  are  unknowable, 
we  see  that  all  our  views  are  distorted  and  partial.  Limited 
microbes  in  the  midst  of  immensity,  we  can  comprehend  our 
immediate  environment,  the  things  we  bump  against,  but  the 
farther  we  reach  out,  the  more  vague  become  the  details, 
then  the  masses,  until  distinctions  fade  in  universal  obscur- 
ity. Why  all  this  passionate  rage  and  contention  about  dog- 
mas and  theories?  Science  shades  off  by  imperceptible 
changes  of  tint  into  the  unknown.  Still  the  fact  that  we  are 
not  wholly  egotistical,  that  there  is  such  a  thing  as  duty  and 
self-sacrifice,  indicates  a  moral  order,  inexplicable  by  any 
known  physical  laws,  an  order  which  mankind  has  personi- 
fied as  God,  and  represented  by  sacred  symbols.  Meanwhile, 
we  use  such  capacities  as  we  possess,  and  through  scientific 
research  widen  the  field  of  knowledge,  complaining  of  the 
limitations  of  mental  sight  no  more  than  of  the  limitations  of 
physical  sight.  Having  exhausted  the  strictly  scientific  meth- 
ods, we  are  at  liberty  to  apply  imaginative  conjecture,  fully 
aware  of  what  we  are  doing  and  never  admitting  imagina- 
tion where  scientific  processes  are  applicable. 

Our  vision  is  similarly  bounded  when  we  look  back  upon 
the  past.  Indeed,  even  the  present  can  be  known  to  us  only 
through  imperfect  indications  of  what  really  takes  place.  A 
strict  analysis  shows  that  we  know  hardly  anything  with 
certitude,  and  yet  we  have  a  comfortable  assurance  that  our 
information  is  sufficient.  The  picture  as  a  whole  is  possible, 
even  probable,  when  based  on  the  best  information  available ; 
and  it  must  suffice,  for  it  is  all  that  is  within  our  reach. 

The  moral  and  practical  yardsticks  are  also  applied  to 
Renan  with  equally  unsatisfactory  results.  Nature  is  im- 
moral, nature  does  not  prescribe  that  the  male  should  be 

449 


ERNEST  RENAN 

chaste,  nature  is  anti-patriotic — such  remarks  embody  obser- 
vation of  neighboring  facts,  not  precepts  to  govern  conduct. 
Stronger  than  animal  nature  is  what  Renan  calls  the  ideal, 
an  effluence  of  the  infinite.  The  man  animated  by  this  senti- 
ment needs  no  ten  commandments  or  ten  thousand  com- 
mandments. Here  is  the  basis  of  Renan 's  affinity  with  Jesus, 
"the  greatest  of  men,  because  he  developed  this  dim  feeling 
(i.e.,  the  infinite  which  is  in  the  heart)  with  an  unprece- 
dented, an  unsurpassable  power. ' '  *  Such  morality  may  not 
be  practical  except  among  the  elite,  and  indeed  for  the  scrim- 
mage of  life  the  Church  was  obliged  to  substitute  definite 
rules  more  or  less  derived  from  the  lofty  precepts  of  the 
Master.  Renan  himself,  though  one  of  the  elite,  felt  that  his 
life  had  been  dominated  by  the  rules  and  examples  pre- 
sented to  him  in  his  early  education,  and  he  wondered  what 
standards  a  generation  deprived  of  such  training  could  obtain 
for  its  guidance.  As  has  been  already  remarked,  this  doubt 
seems  to  have  been  his  only  important  infidelity  to  his  prin- 
ciples. Faith  should  have  assured  him,  as  it  undoubtedly 
did  substantially,  that  the  ideal  would  suffice  for  every 
higher  need  of  humanity. 

If  we  measure  practical  ability,  as  is  commonly  done,  by 
success,  Renan  was  one  of  the  most  practical  men  of  his  time. 
He  achieved  everything  he  set  out  to  achieve.  And  he  did 
this  by  a  procedure  entirely  in  harmony  with  his  whole  atti- 
tude toward  things,  by  tenacious  adherence  to  what  was  in 
sight  and  comparative  neglect  of  unessentials.  The  profes- 
sorship of  Hebrew,  the  Origins  of  Christianity,  the  Corpus, 
upon  these  he  concentrated,  and  fame  and  social  position 
and  money  came  of  themselves.  In  politics  he  was  not  prac- 
tical, and  he  was  not  successful.  In  this  field  he  knew  more 
of  world  movements  than  he  did  of  the  limited  sphere  in 
which  an  actual  participant  must  work.     Vast  results  he 

*  Questions  contemporaines,  p.  150. 

450 


CONCLUSION 

cotild  foresee  accurately,  not  minor  constituents  of  such  re- 
sults. Omitting  his  views  about  republican  France,  an  exam- 
ple from  his  early  life  will  furnish  a  sufficiently  good  illus- 
tration. He  thinks  Italian  unity  impossible,  because  each 
city — Florence,  Venice,  Genoa — would  reclaim  its  independ- 
ence and  call  for  outside  help  against  the  others  as  in  the 
Middle  Ages.  On  the  other  hand,  he  sees  truly  that  the  fu- 
ture of  Italy  cannot  be  based  upon  its  past. 

No  one  can  tell  what  poison  an  imbecile  or  a  person  of  evil 
tendencies  will  suck  out  of  a  book.  There  are  some  who  have 
made  Kant  responsible  for  1914.  The  artist,  as  Renan  re- 
marked, is  not  responsible  for  misinterpretations  of  his  wort. 
"If  a  clumsy  fellow  swallows  a  perfume  given  him  to  smell, 
he  has  no  one  but  himself  to  blame  for  his  stupidity. "  ^  If 
such  characters  as  the  Riehardet  of  Cherbuliez — and  it  is 
said  that  there  were  many  of  this  type — extracted  from 
Renan  a  flabby  theory  of  life,  solid  heads  like  Charles  Ritter, 
Gabriel  ]Monod,  Gaston  Paris,  to  mention  only  those  who  were 
not  orientalists,  found  a  nourishment  of  quite  different  char- 
acter. Upon  young  scholars,  in  particular,  his  influence  was 
wholly  good,  encouraging  disinterested,  laborious  and  accu- 
rate research.  •  How  often,  in  reading  his  correspondence,  do 
we  find  him  working  night  and  day  on  one  of  his  self-imposed 
tasks !    This  in  itself  is  a  high  morality. 

The  world  is  a  place  for  serious  labor  and  for  serious  re- 
flection ;  it  is  also  a  spectacle,  and  we  are  called  upon  to  en- 
joy and  admire  it.  Some  who  claimed  to  be  disciples  of 
Renan  regarded  it  as  exclusively  a  spectacle,  but  the  very 
word  "exclusive"  shows  that  they  had  no  real  affinity  with 
him  they  claimed  as  a  guide.  The  world,  then,  is  also  a 
spectacle,  and  something  inexcusable  from  the  spiritual 
standpoint  may  yet  have  its  appropriate  place  in  this  varied 
panorama.     It  may  even  arouse  admiration,  provided  it  is 

•"Rfiponse  k  Claretie,"  Feuilles,  p.  236. 

451 


ERNEST  RENAN 

not  entirely  vulgar.  Nero  himself  excites  curiosity  rather 
than  hatred.  His  insanity,  cruelty  and  viciousness  are  fully 
exposed  in  words  that  are  adequate  to  the  horrors  he  com- 
mitted, yet  the  saving  grace  of  artistic  or  semiartistic  sen- 
sibility is  not  denied  the  monster.  If  the  specimen  is  repul- 
sive on  account  of  its  capacity  for  evil,  it  is  nevertheless 
attractive  as  an  object  of  study  and  comprehension.  And 
the  same  may  be  said  of  the  conditions  that  originated  and 
nourished  a  monstrosity  so  unique.  Perversion  and  excess 
may  properly  arouse  the  wrath  of  the  moralist;  they  may 
also,  with  equal  propriety,  be  examined  by  the  thinker  with- 
out excitement  and  be  explained  rather  than  judged.  In  his 
writings,  Renan  is  not  much  given  to  praise  or  blame.  He 
does  not  enter  into  his  personages,  or  even  stand  aside  and 
applaud  or  hiss  them.  He  rather  places  them  in  the  current 
and  by  his  unimpassioned  statement  leaves  the  admiration  or 
the  horror  excited  by  individuals  to  the  sentiments  of  his 
readers.  He  had  indignation  enough,  but  he  kept  it  out  of 
his  books. 

There  was,  indeed,  no  irritation  so  violent  that  its  current 
would  not  be  absorbed  in  his  placid  tolerance ;  ®  and  this  tol- 
erance was  not  indifference  or  indolence,  but  the  fruit  of  a 
kindly  nature  and  of  a  sincere  love  of  justice  and  liberty. 
The  rights  he  demanded  for  himself  he  also  demanded  for 
his  opponents.  It  is  impossible  to  find  in  his  published  works 
a  single  expression  of  personal  hatred.  Even  his  irony  is 
uttered  with  a  benevolent  smile.  His  superiority  he  certainly 
knew,  but  he  never  imposes  it  upon  others,  his  writings  being 
as  free  from  arrogance  as  his  relations  with  men,  both  the 
most  exalted  and  the  most  humble.  Assuredly,  the  dominant 
trait  of  Renan  is  benevolence. 

This  benevolence  is,  indeed,  not  only  a  trait  of  character, 

•"O  what  a  fine  tolerance,  and  of  a  wholly  new  kind,  which  haa 
its  source,  not  in  contempt  for  everything,  but  in  a  profound  faith 
in   something!"     Sainte-Beuve,   Novweaux   Lundis,   vol.    ix,   p.    199. 

452 


CONCLUSION 

but  a  literary  quality.  It  appears  in  his  engaging  way  of 
putting  things,  and  especially  in  his  fraternal  spirit  toward 
all  mankind,  his  humanity  that  recognizes  an  essential  like- 
ness under  every  superficial  variation  of  conditions  and  ap- 
pearances. Most  people  tend  to  regard  an  ancient  Egyptian, 
a  Chinaman,  a  Bedouin,  as  differing  in  character  from  them- 
selves. Not  so  Renan.  His  sympathies  emphasized  the  fact 
that  his  relationship  with  men  of  every  age,  of  every  land,  of 
every  manner  of  life,  was  one  of  kind.  The  motive  of  a  flat- 
tering hieroglyphic  inscription  is  the  same  as  that  of  a  note 
about  the  Emperor  in  the  Moniteur,  the  Chinese  government 
is  such  as  would  be  the  rule  of  the  Academic  des  Sciences 
Morales  et  Politiques,  the  courtesy  and  taste  of  an  illiterate 
nomad  in  his  desert  tent  differs  in  no  respect  but  fashion 
from  the  delicacy  and  refinement  of  a  Parisian  salon.  The 
much  abused  modern  parallels  are  in  truth  nothing  but  a 
bookish  modification  of  the  same  tenderness  of  heart  that 
found  its  personal  expression  in  charitable  acts,  kindly  de- 
meanor, and  manners  of  exquisite  dignity  and  charm. 

It  has  not  been  the  purpose  of  this  study  to  defend  Renan 
or  even  to  propagate  any  of  his  ideas — neither  procedure 
being  appropriate  in  the  case  of  a  writer  who  himself  refused 
to  be  a  controversialist  or  a  propagandist — ^but  to  exhibit  the 
intimate  relationship  of  his  work  to  his  life.  In  such  a  view, 
the  much  heralded  contradictions  largely  vanish.  Each  re- 
mark of  his  is  to  be  taken  in  its  context,  and  the  context  of 
every  remark  is  not  such  or  such  a  page,  but  his  whole  work. 
His  philosophy  is  not  a  system  but  an  organic  unity.  It  fits 
itself  into  the  varying  experiences  of  the  hour.  In  his  earli- 
est writings,  he  is  a  little  overstrenuous ;  in  his  latest,  he 
appeared  a  little  less  serious  than  he  actually  was;  but  he 
has  not  really  changed,  either  in  the  mode  or  substance  of 
his  thought,  or  in  his  laborious  habits  of  performing  his  daily 
task,  or  in  his  earnest  devotion  to  duty  and  to  the  ideal.    If 

453 


ERNEST  RENAN 

in  The  Future  of  Science,  forty  years  has  made  a  difference 
between  the  text  and  the  preface,  we  merely  feel  that  the 
tone  of  the  aging  voice  shows  signs  of  fatigue.  The  senti- 
ment is  the  same  though  the  eagerness  of  anticipation  has,  as 
might  be  expected,  been  left  behind. 

In  fact,  we  find  in  Renan,  what  Sainte-Beuve  was  so  fond 
of  seeking  in  the  subjects  of  his  studies — the  unity  of  a  fine 
life.  If  externally  this  life  is  especially  characterized  by 
benevolence,  internally  it  is  characterized  by  joy,  joy  of  a 
sort  that  begets  and  is  in  turn  begotten  by,  benevolence.  Of 
this  happy  state  the  gayety  for  which  Renan  has  been  re- 
proached is  but  a  manifestation.  He  had  joy  in  his  thoughts, 
joy  in  his  travels,  joy  in  his  human  relationships,  and  above 
all  joy  in  his  work.  He  never  got  far  from  nature ;  even  in 
Paris  his  study,  when  he  chose  it,  always  looked  out  on  trees. 
A  fine  view  never  failed  to  elicit  his  enthusiasm.  When  the 
contemplation  of  the  universe  gives  us  delight,  we  should  not 
deprive  ourselves  of  this  element  of  harmless  happiness. 

It  is  not  any  particular  idea,  but  the  unity  of  a  great  man 's 
life  and  the  variety  and  perfection  of  his  expression  of  it 
that  constitutes  the  originality  of  genius.  Others  perceived 
the  fluidity  of  existence,  others  broke  through  rigid  formulas, 
others  substituted  thorough  learning  for  superficial  declama- 
tion; the  belief  in  science  as  the  universal  solvent  was  gen- 
eral about  the  middle  of  the  century;  the  intermingling  of 
poetry,  erudition  and  philosophy  was  no  invention  of  Re- 
nan's;  an  intense  concentration  on  a  limited  field,  together 
with  views  into  the  vague  distance,  is  a  method  that  can, 
without  wide  search,  he  paralleled ;  but  nowhere  else  can  be 
found  the  special  combination,  the  resultant  of  thinking,  in 
short,  the  personality  that  we  call  Renan.  He  belonged  to  no 
school,  and  he  formed  no  school.  In  fact,  no  school  was  in 
his  case  possible.    The  very  idea  is  self-destructive. 

The  general  influence  of  his  attitude  toward  existence, 
however,  is  peace  of  spirit.    After  being  nourished  on  his 

454 


CONCLUSION 

works,  one  is  enabled  readily  to  translate  into  nontheological 
terms  the  famous  line  of  Dante : 

In  la  sua  voluntade  h  nostra  pace. 
(In  his  will  is  our  peace.) 

"Let  US  submit  to  the  laws  of  nature,"  he  said,  "of  which 
which  we  are  one  of  the  manifestations.  The  earth  and  the 
heavens  remain."  Those  who  need  abstract  formulas  and 
definite  promises  can  readily  find  elsewhere  all  that  they  de- 
Sire.  It  is  unreasonable  for  them  to  complain  that  such 
things  are  not  among  the  offerings  of  Renan,  "What  he  does 
present  is  given  with  fullness  and  sincerity.  Such  was  the 
picture  reflected  in  his  intellectual  retina.  To  debate  its 
correctness  is,  as  he  would  be  the  first  to  admit,  utterly  futile. 
For  all  readers  it  has  elements  of  interest;  for  those  who 
have  a  somewhat  similar  vision,  it  furnishes  an  enrichment 
of  outlook  which  they  will  find  of  serious  import  and  not 
without  charm. 


INDEX 


No  references  are  made  to  the  chronological  outline  in  the  chapt€r 
headings  and  only  the  principal  passages  are  indexed. 


Abbess  of  Jouarre,  352,  353. 

Academy,  essay  on,  199 ;  election 
to  and  reception,  314-319;  535; 
addresses  at,  336-339;  369. 

Academy  of  Inscriptions;  elec- 
tion to,  177,  178;  203;  214; 
216;  242;  266;  president  of, 
278;  293;  298. 

Addresses  and  Lectures,  335; 
340;  354.  See  also  titles  of 
individual  addresses. 

Alliance  Fran^aise,  address  be- 
fore, 343. 

Amiel's  Journal,  344,  345. 

Antichrist,  The,  291,  292;  305; 
380,  381. 

Apostles,  The,  258,  259;  378,  380. 

Arnold,  Matthew,  203 ;  352. 

"Art  of  the  Middle  Ages,"  mem- 
oir on,  242, 

Assisi,  138,  139;  St  Francis  of, 
262,  263. 

Athenceum  frangais,  145. 

Athens,  257. 

Avenir  de  la  Science.  See 
Future  of  Science. 

Averroes  and  Averroism,  71; 
151;  153,  154. 

Beatrix,  58 ;  141,  142. 
Beranger,  87;  93;  essay  on,  199, 

200. 
Berger,  Philippe,  301;  330;  358, 

359;  368;  370,371. 
Bernard,  Claude,  317,  318. 


Bersot,  71;  149;  155  note;  163; 
203;  217,  218;  221;  232,  233; 
274,  275. 

Berthelot,  40;  68;  134;  203;  210- 
212;  246,  247;  255;  334;  letter 
to,  as  minister,  346;  370;  372. 

Bertin,  162 ;  250-252. 

Bible,  422;  425-427. 

Bibliotheque  nation  ale  or  im- 
periale,  145;  150;  216;  228. 

Brandes,  282;  444. 

Brittany,  love  of,  52,  53;  re- 
visited, 260,  261 ;  333. 

Buddhism,  146,  147. 

Buloz,  146;  336. 

Burnouf,  65;  72;  132,  133;  156; 
159,  160. 


Cahiers.    See  Notebooks. 

Caliban,  312;  348. 

Carbon,  21. 

Celtic  dinners,  333;  368,  369. 

"Celtic  Races,  Poetry  of,"  166- 

169;  196,  197. 
Chatterton,  90-93. 
Cherbuliez,  336. 
Christian  Church,  The,  326;  382, 

383. 
Clerical  Liberalism,  essay  on,  76, 

77. 
College  de  France,  26;  38;  64; 

192;   215   et  seq.;   278;   293; 

311;    327;    Administrator   of, 

329;  358;  lectures  at,  359. 


457 


mmx 


CoUlge  Stanislas,  35,  36. 
Commune,  291. 

Comparisons,  395,  396;  432,  433. 
Conferences  d'Angleterre,  340. 
Constantinople,  258. 
"Constitutional      Monarchy     in 

France,"  276,  277. 
Contemporary  Questions,  77 ;  82 ; 

270,   271.    See  also  titles  of 

individual  essays. 
Comu,  Hortense,  204;  309. 
Corps  Legislatif,  227;  267;  273 

et  seq.;  288. 
Corpus  Inscriptionum  Semitica- 

rum,  266 ;  299 ;  325 ;  367. 
"Cosmos"  of  Humboldt,  essay  on, 

81. 
Coup  d'fitat,  147-149. 
Cousin,   62;   70,   71;   153;   156; 

essay  on,  188-190;  235;  review 

of  life,  344. 
Crouzet  pension,  36  et  seq. 

Daremberg,  132,  133. 

Darmesteter,  Madame.  See  Rob- 
inson, Mary. 

David,  220,  421,  422;  431;  438. 

Death,  370,  371. 

"De  I'aetivite  intellectuelle  en 
France,"  81,  82. 

De  Lesseps,  336. 

De  Vorigine  du  langage,  80,  81. 

De  philosophia  peripatetica,  151, 
152. 

Derenbourg,  161;  175;  278. 

De  Saey,  161-164 ;  essay  on,  188 ; 
190;  233;  314,315. 

De  Stael,  Madame,  16;  61. 

"Dialosrue  of  the  Dead,  1802," 
345,  346. 

Dialogues  philosophiques.  See 
Philosophic  Dialogues. 

Dilettantism,  324,  325;  328;  330; 
369;  446. 

Discours  et  conferences.  See  Ad- 
dresses and  Lectures, 


Drames     philosophiques.        Se6 

Philosophic  Dramas. 
Dupanloup,  8  et  seq.;  39;  232; 

235 ;  267,  note. 
Duruy,  228. 

Eau  de  Jouvence,  312 ;  349,  350. 
Ecclesiastes,  327,  328;  428. 
"Eelaircissements  tires   des  lan- 

gues  semitiques,"  74,  npte. 
Education,  committee  on  higher, 

302,  303;  department  of,  313, 

314. 
E^er,  155,156;  343. 
^glise  Chretienne.    See  Christian 

Church. 
Egypt,  256. 
Elixir    of    Life.    See    Eau    de 

Jouvence. 
Ernest  and  Beatrix,  141-143. 
Essais  de  morale  et  de  critique. 

See  Moral  and  Critical  Essays. 
Etudes  d'histoire  religieuse.    See 

Studies  in  Religious  History, 
ivangiles,     Les.     See     Gospels, 

The. 
"Examination     of     Philosophic 

Conscience,"  344;  362-364. 
"Exposition,    Poetry    of,"    169, 

170. 

"Family  and  State  in  Educa- 
tion," 273. 

Father,  death  of,  4. 

"Feuerbaeh  et  la  nouvelle  ecole 
hegelienne,"  83,  84. 

Feuilles  detachees.  See  Scat- 
tered Leaves. 

Fichte,  95. 

Franco-Prussian  War,  281  et 
seq. 

Funeral,  371. 

Future  of  Science,  55;  69;  81, 
82;  85  et  seq.;  147;  176;  182; 
184;  189;  201;  220;  297;  365. 


458 


INDEX 


Gamier,  Adolphe,  60 ;  157. 
Gamier,  of  Saint  Sulpice,  21. 
"Geraaan   Friend,   Letter  to  a," 

320-322. 
German,      language,      15;      17; 

thought,  18. 
Germany,  43;  61;  79,  80;  281; 

283;  291;  321;  437. 
Gerusez,  60. 
God,  42;  45;  94;  105-108;  244; 

294-296;  363,  364;  437;  445. 
Goethe,  27;  89. 
Goncourt,  visit  to   Renan,   265; 

quarrel  with,  360,  361. 
Good  Friday  dinner,  269,  270. 
Gospels,  The,  309 ;  331,  382. 
Gosselin,  15 ;  17,  18. 
Grant  Duff,  203;  263. 
Greece,  414,  415;  434,  435.    See 

Athens. 

Hebrew,  chair  of,  215-221;  278; 

293. 
Hebrew,  language,  25;  grammar, 

39. 
Henriette.  See  Renan,  Henriette. 
Herder,  27;  61;  128,  129. 
Hermann,  self-portrait  of  Renan, 

70. 
Hibbert  Lectures,  339,  340. 
"Higher  Instruction  in  France," 

248,  249. 
Histoire  de  Vetude  de  la  langue 

grecque,  70. 
Histoire    generate    des    langues 

semitiques,  65;  174-177;  245. 
Histoire     litteraire,     151 ;     178 ; 

194;    264,    265;    288;     326; 

367. 
Historiens  critiques  de  Jesus,  78, 

79. 
History  of  the  People  of  Israel, 

327;  344;  359;  365-367;  386; 

414-442. 
Holland,  visit  to,  224. 

Inaugural  lecture,  217-221. 


Intellectual  and  Moral  Reform, 
288-291.  See  also  titles  of  in- 
dividual essays. 

Ischia,  308;  311,  312;  330. 

"Islamism  and  Science,"  341. 

Israel,  Ewald's  History  reviewed, 
171.  See  also  History  of  the 
People  of  Israel. 

Issy,  13  et  seq. 

Italy,  132  et  seq.;  trips  to,  304, 
305;  332. 

Jacques,  Amedee,  75,  76 ;  148. 

Jesus,  33;  51;  57;  219;  404,  405; 
429 ;  450. 

Jesus,  Life  of,  212,  213 ;  231-241 ; 
245,  246;  262;  379;  388-390; 
398;  448. 

Job,  Book  of,  195 ;  197,  198. 

Journal  Asiatique,  140. 

Journal  de  I'instruction  publique, 
156,  157. 

Journal  des  Debats,  161  et  seq.; 
204;  249,  250;  262;  letters  on 
the  war,  288;  feuilletons  in, 
345,  346;  "Recollections  of," 
346;  obituaries,  371.  See  also 
individual  essays  published  in. 

Journal  des  Savants,  302;  344. 

"Judaism  and  Christianity,"  341. 

"Judaism  as  Race  and  Religion," 
341. 

Lamennais,  185-187. 

Le  Clerc,  132;  153;  156;  242; 

264. 
LeHir,  21,  22;  39;  267. 
Levy,  Michel,  180,  181. 
"Liberal  Protestantism,"  306. 
Liberie  de  Penser,  75  et  seq. 
Littre,  175,  176. 
London,  141 ;  339. 

Magny  dinners,  250,  251 ;  361. 
Mahomet,  146,  147. 
Malebranche,  15,  16,  17;  294. 


459 


INDEX 


Marcus  Aurelius,  250;  volume 
on,  326;  340 ;  383,  384;  391. 

Marriage,  178-180, 

Matilde,  Princess,  251. 

Melanges  d'histoire  et  de  voy- 
ages. See  Miscellanies  of  His- 
tory and  Travel. 

Mezieres,  315,  316;  319. 

Minor  orders,  24. 

Miscellanies  of  History  and 
Travel,  312.  See  also  titles  of 
individual  essays. 

Mission  de  Phenicie,  214. 

Mohl,  Jules,  175, 176. 

Mohl,  Madame,  251. 

Moniteur,  159 ;  214. 

Montalembert,  235. 

Moral  and  Critical  Essays,  195- 
197.  See  also  titles  of  indi- 
vidual essays. 

Morley,  John,  153. 

Mother,  4;  16  e*  seq.;  32,  33;  36, 
37;  193;  219;  253;  260. 

Naples,  135,  136. 

Napoleon,  Prince,  251;  269;  279; 
304. 

"Nation,  What  is  a,"  340,  341. 

Nero,  391,  392. 

New  Studies  in  Religious  His- 
tory, 354.  See  also  titles  of 
individual  essays. 

Norway,  trip  to,  279. 

Notebooks,  Early,41-64;  86  et  seq. 

Nouvelles  Etudes  d'histoire  re- 
ligieuse.  See  New  Studies  in 
Religious  History. 

Origin  of  Language,  195. 
Origins  of  Christianity,  128,  129 ; 

203;  233;  319;  373-413.    See 

also  titles  of  volumes. 
Ozanam,  38;  60. 


Paris,  idea  of,  277. 
Pasteur,  337, 


Patrice,  141-143. 

Patriotism,  277;  283;  292;  297  j 

313. 
Peter,  392. 

"Philology,   Services  of,  to  His- 
torical Sciences,"  340. 
Philosophical     Dialogues,     200- 

202;  246,  247;  293-297;  307. 
Philosophic     Dramas,     347-354. 

See  also  titles   of  individual 

dramas. 
"Philosophy    of    Contemporary 

History,"  191. 
Pius  IX,  137,  138. 
Political    campaign,    267;    273- 

276. 
Politics,   73;   opinions   on,  191;. 

272-274;  276,  277;  287,  288: 

314. 
Pompeii,  331. 

Pr4vost-Paradol,  157;  163;  221. 
Priest  of  Nemi,  The,  350,  351. 
Principles  of  Conduct,  23,  24. 
"Prologue  in  Heaven,"  345. 
"Provinces,    Can    one    work    in 

the,"  342,  343. 
Psichari,  332. 

Quatremere,  26;  38;  132;  192. 
Quellien,  333. 

Questions  contemporaines.  See 
Contemporary  Questions. 

Rabbis,  French,  265;  299;  367, 
368. 

Recollections  of  Childhood  and 
Youth,  308 ;  329,  330. 

Reforme  intellectuelle  et  morale, 
La.  See  Intellectual  and 
Moral  Reform. 

Regnier,  226,  227. 

Reinaud,  161. 

"Religious  Crisis  in  Europe," 
306. 

"Religious  Future  of  Modem  So- 
cieties," 205,  206, 


460 


INDEX 


Renan,  Alain,  5. 

Renan,  Ary,  193. 

Renan  en  famille,  234. 

Renan,  Ernestine,  202. 

Renan,  Henriette,  5,  6;  17  et 
seq.;  28  et  seq.;  144;  178  et 
seq.;  193;  194;  204;  209  et 
seq.;  death,  213;  244;  245; 
257-  260*  319. 

Renan  legend,  324,  325;  328. 

Renan,  Madame.  See  Mother,  or 
Wife. 

Renan,  Noemi,  252;  327;  332. 

Residences  in  Paris,  180,  note. 

Reville  reviews  Life  of  Jesus, 
237. 

Revolution  of  '48,  72  et  seq. 

Revue  des  deux  Mondes,  146; 
166;  171;  learned  articles  in, 
298,  299;  chapters  of  Origins 
of  Christianity,  307 ;  362,  note ; 
articles  on  Bible,  366.  See 
also  titles  of  articles  published 
in. 

Ritter,  Charles,  304;  310;  369, 
370. 

Robinson,  Mary,  impression  of 
Renan,  331,  332;  444. 

Rome,  134, 135. 

Rosmapamon,  334. 

Sainte-Beuve,  62,  63;  155;  186; 

193;  197;  232;  237;  239;  243, 

244;  250,251;  268,  269;  361. 
Saint-Marc  Girardin,  60,  61;  63. 
Saint  Nicholas,  9  et  seq. 
Saint  Paul,  257,  258;  261;  320; 

393,  394. 
Saint  Sulpice,  12  et  seq.;  21  et 

seq. 
Saiat  Yves,  5. 
Sand,  George,  309. 
Scattered  Leaves,  335 ;  369.    See 

also  titles  of  individual  essays. 
Scheffer,    Ary,    159;    170,    171; 

185;  194, 


Scheffer,  Comelie.    See  Wife. 

Scheffer,  Henri,  159 ;  death,  252. 

Scherer,  237;  316;  346;  444. 

Science.  See  Future  of  Science. 

Senate,  attack  in,  268,  269. 

"Services  of  Science  to  the  Peo- 
ple," 273. 

Sevres,  253;  258;  pillaged,  286. 

Sicily,  trip  to,  307,  308. 

Simon,  Jules,  31  note;  66;  75, 
76;  148. 

Socialism,  73,  74;  410;  433,  434. 

Social  life  and  conversation,  356, 
357.^ 

Societe  Asiatique,  176;  242; 
Secretary  of,  266,  267;  Secre- 
tary's reports,  300-302;  Presi- 
dent, 326;  369. 

Soeur  Henriette,  244,  245. 

Solomon,  431,  432. 

Song  of  Songs,  198, 199. 

Sophie,  Queen,  309. 

Souvenirs  d'enfance  et  de  jeu- 
nesse.  See  Recollections  of 
Childhood  and  Youth. 

Speeches,  at  Lycee  Louis-Ie- 
Grand,  342;  on  various  occa- 
sions, 343,  344. 

Spinoza,  105;  address  on,  310. 

Strauss,  letters  to,  284-287;  in- 
troduction to  Essays  of,  304. 

Studies  in  Religious  History,  78; 
82,  83 ;  182-185.  See  also  titles 
of  individual  essays. 

Style,  47;  77;  144;  Henriette's 
help,  145;  de  Sacy's  influence, 
164;  171-174;  190;  199;  318; 
411. 

Subdeaconate,  27  et  seq. 

Syria,  208  et  seq.;  256,  258. 

Tailloires,  summer  at,  332. 

Taine,  155;  161;  163;  194;  203 
218,  219;  231,  232;  247,  248 
250;  252,  253;  260;  271;  288 
297;  305;  311;  315. 


461 


INDEX 


Tel^maque,  89,  90. 

"Temptation  of  Christ,"  171. 

Thierry,  Augustin,  130;  146; 
148;  156;  158;  177;  article  on, 
187,  188. 

Tonsure,  17  et  seq.;  22  et  seq. 

Treguier,  3;  college  at,  6,  7;  fes- 
tival at,  333,  334;  statue  at, 
372. 

Troppmann,  432. 


UUiac,  Mile.,  38,  39;  145.  ^ 

Venice,  139;  331.  : 

Vie  de  Jesus.    See  Jesus,  Life    j 

of. 

Villemain,  60.  \ 

Voltaire,  124.  i 

Wife,  157;  194;  205;  211;  260. 
Wood,  Wallace,  354,  355. 


(1) 


H^ 


l^  SOUTHBIN  REGIONS.  UBRARY  FAC  .  '  - 


A    000  679  095    o 


